Moldova will improve conditions for online business, and economic agents selling their goods or services through online platforms will receive more predictable and fair conditions
This is envisaged by the draft Law on promoting fairness and transparency for businesses using online intermediary services, adopted by the Parliament in the second reading. The document was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization with the support of the USAID-funded Technologies of the Future project. According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization, this new regulation was necessary because platforms occupy a dominant position, often dictating rules that may affect commercial users when selling goods. Thus, a platform can suspend traders' accounts or block their goods without a clear explanation or notification. Clear rules for access to sellers' and consumers' data will also be established, which will ensure transparency in the work of platforms with this data. This bill transposes into Moldovan law the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on promoting fairness and transparency for businesses using online intermediary services and will bring a number of benefits to companies in our country that sell their services or products on platforms such as Google Marketplace, Apple Appstore, Booking, Airbnb, Amazon, Ebay, Aliexpress and others. The approved bill aims to correct this practice by establishing clearer rules and obliging platforms to provide clarifications and time to make adjustments and changes. The law will oblige platform providers to be more transparent in how they display products on the platform and not to allow favoritism for their own products over other sellers. In addition, a prior notice of at least 15 days will be required for changes to the terms, as well as justification for blocking merchant accounts. The law also introduces a number of clear rules for access to information about sellers and consumers, ensuring transparency in how platforms process this data. According to the authors, the legislative initiative will help create a fairer and more legitimate market in terms of commercial practices. Currently, businesses using online brokers face a number of problems. In particular, online platforms avoid disclosing convincing information on how goods and sales are prioritized, as well as on the application of certain commercial algorithms. In addition, there are no clear mechanisms for resolving disputes between economic operators and online platforms. The draft law will enter into force 12 months after its publication in the Monitorul Oficial. At the same time, the Competition Council will be the competent authority for ensuring and applying the new legal norms. // 20.03.2025 — InfoMarket
