The book industry complained to the FAS on marketplaces
The Association of Book -Street sent an official letter to the FAS with a request to pay attention to dumping when selling books through marketplaces and taking measures to protect competition. 54.5% of all books sold in the Russian Federation now passes through electronic sites, the difference in price with offline stores can reach from 30% to 70%. The book networks, with the exception of individual large players, confirm that they feel the competitive pressure of the marketplaces.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the official letter of the Association of Book -Street (“Alpina”, “Bukvoed”, “Moscow House of the Book”, etc.), sent to the FAS on April 15. According to the document, the book industry was faced with pressure from the marketplaces: Ozon, Wildberries, Yandex Market, which jeopardizes “thousands of bookstores”. The Association asks the department to influence the execution of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” by marketplace and prohibit Ozon, Wildberries and Yandex Market set an extremely low and high price for the goods and unilaterally reduce the cost of books implemented on the site. The FAS confirmed that the appeal was received.
From 2019 to 2024, the share of sales through bookstores decreased by 29.2% and at the moment is only 38%. Sales of books through marketplaces have increased by 31.6% and today make up more than half of the entire book market – 54.5% according to the results of 2024, they say in associations with reference to the industry report “Book Market of Russia – 2024”, prepared by the mincifers. The difference in the price of the book in the retail store and on the marketplace is 30%, and during the period of shares on online sites, the indicator can reach 50–70%, the letter said: “As a result, the price dumping of marketplaces is detrimental to the development of the entire book industry. In 2024 alone, 220 bookstores were closed in the Russian Federation, and the closure dynamics increased 2.5 times compared to 2023. ” If in the near future the price dumping of marketplaces will not be stopped, this will lead to the mass closing of bookstores across the country in 2025–2026, the association in the letter indicates.
In 2024, the share of sales of books on marketplaces amounted to 46.1%, a year earlier the indicator was at the level of 34.4%, estimated at Eksmo-AST. According to the CEO of Eksmo Evgeny Kapyev, the share of sales of books on marketplaces is even higher and reaches 60%. In Eksmo-Ast, they told Kommersant that the group is taking measures to support book retail: “We are implementing a flexible pricing policy that allows the offline and growth to offer discounts and receive bonuses.” The Alpine refused comments.
Online stores have smaller costs for renting premises, which allows them to set more interesting prices for buyers, says the president of the Association of Internet trade companies (Akit; includes Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex Market) Artem Sokolov. “The pricing on Wildberries is determined exclusively by the seller of the platform. Marketplais can only provide an additional discount at the expense of its own funds, ”the press service of the united company Wildberries and RUSS say. In Ozon and Yandex Market, they refused to comment.
“Sometimes the vacation price of the book, at which we, as a retail store, purchase goods from a publishing house or distributor, is higher than the final price for the buyer on marketplaces,” the general director told Kommersant « St. Petersburg House of the Book « Kristina Matveeva. At the moment, stores do not withstand the price competition from the marketplaces, says Alexei Andrianov, executive director of the My Book chain of stores: “We feel in real time when the marketplaces hold their shares, because our sales collapse at that moment.”
Due to the decrease in the purchasing power of the population in the regions in 2025, the price becomes a decisive factor when buying a book, the co-owner of the Amital regional book network Tatyana Larina emphasizes. The general director of the bookstore « Signature Publications » Mikhail Ivanov recalls that « the market for VAT has less, and they pay this tax only from the commission. » Their income tax is also lower, all this makes it possible to keep prices 30–40% lower than in offline.
The CEO of the network “Read-Gorod-Bukvoed” Alexander Brychkin with such a price range between stores and marketplace does not agree: “Given the loyalty and price program, we can even be lower. At some of the publishers, we received additional discounts on the purchase price, in the top novelties and bestsellers reduced the percentage of margins. Some publishers remain who are reluctant to meet us. For them, the difference in prices can be significant. ”
