Belarusian business asks authorities to help affected Wildberries sellers
Around 22 thousand Belarusian companies and entrepreneurs are under threat of huge losses due to fires at Wildberries' Russian warehouses. As the marketplace may try to attribute everything to force majeure, domestic businesses are calling on the Ministry of Economy to intervene at the highest level and, through diplomatic channels, compel the retail giant to pay compensation.
The Minsk Metropolitan Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers appealed to First Deputy Minister of Economy Ivan Vezhnovets with a request to urgently organize a joint working meeting and develop an action plan to protect Belarusian business.
The union argues its position by stating that over 22 thousand economic entities of the Republic of Belarus store their products in the marketplace's warehouses in Russia, and the consequences of the fires pose a significant threat to the Belarusian economy.
Legally, the refusal to pay compensation has no grounds, argue the entrepreneurs, as Belarusian sellers entered into an offer with the local legal entity LLC "IMVBRB". In this regard, "attempts to refer to fires on the territory of the Russian Federation cannot be considered as a basis for refusing compensation on the grounds of irresistible force (force majeure)," believe the authors of the appeal.
Since the goods were transferred under agreements between Wildberries itself and the warehouse owners, "Belarusian economic entities-sellers have no ability to influence the safety of their goods" and are not responsible for it.
Currently, the union's experts have already developed a plan for pre-trial loss assessment and are preparing the groundwork for "collective judicial protection" if the marketplace refuses to cover the damage peacefully.
“Given the ambiguous situation… experts concluded that it is necessary to combine the efforts of the business community and competent public administration bodies… Time and a high level of coordination of efforts play a decisive role in this case,” argue the entrepreneurs.
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