Parallel import in Russia

Just imagine: someone buys goods manufactured by your enterprise abroad or possibly even in Germany, brings them into Russia and sells them there, bypassing all the permits, dealer networks and pricing systems that you had initially envisioned. And the most frightening aspect of all: you have no control over the potential parties that will be supplied with your goods and the sale price, and this happens at times when you can be struck down at any moment by the sanctions of the European Union or the USA.

You might say that this couldn’t possibly happen and that measures should be taken to prevent this!

In Russia, which has been fighting tooth and nail for goods since the start of the crisis, the issue of whether such parallel imports are permissible has been discussed extensively.

In particular, on 13 February 2018 the Russian Constitutional Court considered the admissibility of such parallel imports into Russia. What the court’s judgment would be was proactively debated both in the Russian media and in the legal literature. In this newsletter, we will provide a brief overview of the state of the discussion at present.