MOSCOW, March 15. Home appliance manufacturers Electrolux, Tefal, Braun and Rowenta have begun blocking supplies to Russia through parallel imports, Kommersant reports, citing sources.
“According to retailers, companies are signing a moratorium with partners in other countries on the re-export of electronics to Russia. Sellers are allowing brands to completely disappear from sale, hoping that they will be replaced by Turkish and Chinese goods,” the article states.
The chief executive officer of the M.Video-Eldorado group, Sergei Li, told the publication that the Swedish brand Electrolux Group, which owns the Electrolux and Zanussi brands, has already begun to limit parallel imports.
Another Kommersant interlocutor, representing a large Russian retailer, noted , that Electrolux products have not been sold in their network since February 2022 for the reason that due to parallel imports, the cost of a product that is no different from more budget analogues increases several times.
Previously, the publication reported that Bosch began to close mono-brand stores, while LG and Sony stores closed in the Moscow Afimall City shopping center.
< br />At the end of March 2022, the Russian government legalized parallel imports to meet the demand for in-demand foreign goods. This mechanism does not mean the legalization of counterfeit goods; the measure involves the import of original goods, but through alternative supply channels, the Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasized.
At the end of last year, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Andrei Belousov said that almost two years of operation of the parallel import mechanism, goods worth more than $70 billion were imported into Russia.