Inedible, period: Russians massively face delays in stores
In Russia, despite the introduction of labeling, a large number of sales of expired products are recorded. More than 18 thousand violators are identified every month. Now sellers of such products will automatically receive fines, Izvestia has learned. The relevant bill was prepared by Rospotrebnadzor. Penalties will begin to operate by analogy with the system of "auto fines" for traffic violations. According to public figures, entrepreneurs use a moratorium on inspections, and business considers the initiative too harsh and difficult to dispute. Izvestia investigated whether the measure would help get rid of low-quality products.
Why do the authorities want to strengthen measures to combat late trade
Sellers of low-quality products will be fined automatically, similar to the mechanism of "auto fines" for traffic violations. The draft law with the relevant amendments to the Administrative Code was prepared by Rospotrebnadzor. Izvestia has reviewed the document.
The explanatory note notes that the list of cases in which the sale of goods subject to mandatory labeling is prohibited was approved by a government decree back in 2023. These include expired products.
"Since 2024, the licensing regime as a whole has significantly reduced the number of violations related to the sale of expired dairy products (by more than 40 times as of April 2025). Thus, the turnover participants demonstrated the possibility of improving the quality control of business processes. At the same time, since April of this year, the total number of such violations (across all product groups) has shown an upward trend," the document says.
The decision to create a state system of mandatory digital labeling of goods was made in Russia in 2017. Its goal is to increase product turnover control. This includes reducing counterfeiting and counterfeiting, tracking the path of goods from production to sale in order to control product quality. This task was assigned to the operator, the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT). The task was set for him to develop and implement a digital product labeling system (GIS MT), known today as the Honest Mark, which has been operational since 2019. Currently, dairy products, beer and low-alcohol products, bottled drinking water, medicines, etc. are among the products subject to mandatory labeling.
According to the explanatory note, despite the fact that the digital labeling system warned the seller about the expiration date at the checkout, the number of violations is growing. So, in April 2025, more than 18 thousand business representatives violated such a ban on the sale of overdue payments: 4,165 legal entities and 13,972 individual entrepreneurs. And from July 20 to August 20, there were even more of them — 4,790 legal entities and 14,997 sole proprietors.
"That is, it is not possible to reduce the number of violators," the bill emphasizes.
At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor reminds that according to the technical regulations of the Customs Union, when selling food products, the expiration dates set by its manufacturer must be observed. Products that do not meet these requirements are subject to withdrawal from circulation.
The penalty for selling such low-quality goods has already been established. The fine for sole proprietors ranges from 30 to 40 thousand rubles with confiscation of such goods, for legal entities — from 300 to 600 thousand rubles. However, as explained in the department, in order to reduce the administrative burden on businesses, penalties will not take effect until 2026.
The bill also proposes to impose a fine of 50 thousand rubles for sellers who have not registered in the labeling system. The authors of the document indicate that the situation is still widespread.
Rospotrebnadzor clarified that in six months (since February 20), 86.9 million sales of goods conducted by unregistered participants in the system were recorded. Although this figure is 5.7 million less than in the previous six months, year-on-year (from August 20, 2024) it increased by 56 million and amounted to 179.5 million such sales.
Izvestia sent a request to Rospotrebnadzor with a request to comment on the possible timing of the bill's submission to the State Duma and its adoption.
Will fines help in the fight against low-quality goods
The sale of expired goods occurs primarily due to the moratorium on inspections of businesses that benefit from the lack of full-fledged sanctions, and even if the fact of the sale of overdue goods is now being identified, the violator is often not held accountable, Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Council at Rospotrebnadzor, explained to Izvestia.
— Today, the labeling system makes it possible to identify with 100% accuracy cases when entrepreneurs commit certain violations. Since it contains information about the expiration date of each labeled food product, with the help of technical means it is possible to reliably record the fact of its sale after the expiration of the permissible time, which in itself is a gross violation," he explained.
Since the violation will be recorded automatically based on objective data, it will be fair and unbiased, he believes. The main thing is that the existence of such a punishment and its inevitability will be a good preventive measure for those entrepreneurs who are still dealing in arrears, the social activist emphasized.
Mikhail Dubin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CRPT, announced that work has begun in Russia on creating a system of "auto fines" for late sellers at SPIEF 2025. According to him, such a system will have to automatically record violations: if a product that cannot be sold is still sold, all actions will be legally recorded, and the seller will be charged.
The press service of the CRPT told Izvestia that the decision on innovations in the labeling system is made by the government.
"If it is accepted, the operator is ready to implement it. The new mechanism can become an additional tool for controlling the turnover of low—quality and unsafe goods, while eliminating the human factor during the inspection," the organization explained.
At the same time, they noted that thanks to the labeling system, a mechanism has been implemented that prevents overdue payments from reaching customers.
"When scanning the markings at the checkout, the store's software accesses the Honest Mark system to obtain product data. If an item has expired or is prohibited from sale, the cashier will not allow the sale of such an item to the buyer. The system also records deviations that may serve as a basis for the supervisory authorities to conduct an audit. Thanks to him, 2.3 billion unsafe goods were blocked at the cash registers. And sales of expired "milk" decreased by 122 times," the CRPT reported.
The editorial board also addressed questions to the Association of Retail Companies and the largest retail chains.
— This is the right initiative. It is no coincidence that we are introducing digitalization in the country in order to speed up, facilitate and reduce the cost of many processes, including the imposition of fines. And here's another important point: the inevitability of punishment. Of course, those who work in the legal field will not be affected by these innovations," Sergei Lisovsky, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition, told Izvestia.
Alexander Kalinin, the head of the Opora Russia NGO, told Izvestia that business is categorically against this bill.
— We do not support this bill because fines are very difficult to challenge. And if the solution becomes automatic, it will be almost impossible. Entrepreneurs are already having difficult times due to rising tariffs and high key interest rates," said a business representative.
According to him, labeling has already been introduced in Russia to control product quality, which should not allow expired goods to pass through the checkout. If she helped resolve this issue, then it is unclear why these fines are needed, said Alexander Kalinin.
Pavel Shapkin, Chairman of the National Consumer Rights Protection Union, believes that the only effective measure against the sale of expired products may be to block them at the checkout. According to him, even large fines do not stop unscrupulous sellers. Any inspection by Rospotrebnadzor requires coordination with the Prosecutor General's Office. And in the vast majority of cases, such inspections end with a warning, the expert concluded.
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