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Lawyer for marketplaces: blocks, fines and disputes with the platform

Sellers come with different starting points: some have their account blocked without a clear explanation, some have had money deducted, and some have received a complaint from a competitor and lost their product cards. What these stories have in common is that the person does not understand what exactly they violated and on what basis the platform made its decision. Usually all they have is a screenshot of the status and a short notification in their account.

The article covers what disputes with platforms a marketplace lawyer in Kazakhstan handles, how to read the offer and what to record first. Separately — the procedure for pre-trial correspondence, the logic of fines and deductions, and the point at which a dispute goes to court. Related topics — trade marks, IT and copyright — are touched on briefly, as they have separate materials.

Lawyer for marketplaces: what disputes with the platform they handle in Kazakhstan

Working with a marketplace is not an ordinary civil dispute under a supply contract. The seller accepts the platform's offer, which already contains fines, deductions, grounds for blocking the account and the procedure for considering claims. The dispute is not only about money, but also about access to trading, the rating and product cards.

A marketplace lawyer handles cases where the platform has restricted access to the account, deducted a fine under the offer, withheld commission or failed to pay out revenue. A separate area is disputes about goods: buyer returns, quality claims, blocking of product cards and a drop in the seller's rating. Here it is important to distinguish the seller's liability to the buyer from the platform's liability to the seller.

Such disputes require an understanding of both the contractual structure of the offer and the technical side: how the account, reports and transaction logs work. Experience in IT and trade helps to read these documents and build a position based on facts, not only on general rules on transactions.

The work usually includes:

• challenging the blocking or restriction of the seller's account
• removal or reduction of a fine charged under the platform's offer
• recovery of withheld amounts and unpaid revenue
• disputes over the return of goods and buyer claims
• protection of the rating and restoration of product listings
• pre-trial correspondence with the platform and preparation of a claim for court

Lawyer for marketplaces and blocking of a personal account: reasons and procedure

Blocking of a seller's personal account on a marketplace is a unilateral refusal by the platform to perform the contract under the offer, not a technical failure. The grounds are formal: a sharp rise in orders is treated as artificial inflation, buyer complaints about quality or non-conformity of goods, breach of the platform's rules, a double account — a second account for the same person or a related LLP. The work proceeds from the terms of the offer and the actual evidence.

The key question is the proportionality of the blocking to the breach and the platform's compliance with the offer procedure: notification, time limit for explanations, procedure for review. If the ground is formal and the account is closed without any review, the platform's actions are challenged as an unjustified restriction of entrepreneurial activity. Where the grounds are formal and the seller's position is supported by documents, the average time to unblock is 5 days.

Evidence is gathered before the claim: correspondence with buyers, return claims, supplier waybills, bank statements, account statistics, screenshots of the interface confirm that the sales are real and there is no artificial inflation. For a double account, documents on the ownership structure are needed: if the second account is held by another person, the absence of a connection is demonstrated so that the rule on related sellers is not applied automatically.

Lawyer for marketplaces on platform fines: when a withholding is lawful and when it is not

A lawyer for marketplaces begins the review of a withholding with the platform's offer: a fine exists only where it is expressly set out in the contract to which the seller acceded upon registration. A penalty or fine clause must be specific — what it is charged for, how it is calculated and in what procedure it is deducted. If the offer contains only a general phrase about the platform's right to withhold money, any deduction can be brought under it, and the seller is entitled to challenge such a clause as a term of an adhesion contract that deprives him of the rights usually granted under such contracts.

A lawful withholding rests on three elements: a breach expressly named in the offer; a procedure of recording that has been complied with; and a calculation that reconciles with the platform's reports and primary documents. The commission agent's report, the order register, the acts of services rendered, and logistics and warehouse reports are checked — they show for which order and on what ground the amount was deducted. It is not uncommon for a fine to duplicate commission already withheld or to be charged for a return that is not a breach under the offer.

A withholding without a ground is a deduction for actions that are not in the list of breaches, or a charge based on data that diverge from the primary documents. This also covers fines for platform failures, for cancellation of an order by the buyer, and for the return of goods of proper quality within the rules. A separate category is withholdings after termination of the contract, when there is no longer an offer in force.

• reconcile each deduction with a specific clause of the offer
• check the commission agent's report, the order register and the acts
• compare the fine with commission and logistics — is there a double withholding
• exclude returns and cancellations that are not a breach under the offer
• record the discrepancies in writing and send a reasoned claim
• keep the correspondence and reports — they will be needed in any further dispute

Lawyer for marketplaces: comparison of typical seller disputes with a platform

A seller's dispute with a marketplace comes down to typical conflicts: blocking of a personal account, withholding of remuneration, a fine for breach of the platform's rules, refusal to pay for returned goods, a dispute over counterfeit goods. The basis is the offer contract, the platform's rules, the provisions of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on transactions and obligations, and, where business reputation and means of individualisation are protected, the provisions on unfair competition. A lawyer for marketplaces determines what has been breached: a contractual term, the procedure for applying a sanction, or the procedure for reviewing a complaint within the platform.

The pre-trial stage is built on a claim and an internal appeal: the seller, through the account or the platform's official channel, challenges the moderation decision and attaches supporting documents. Some blockings and withholdings are lifted at this stage if the position is supported by exports, acts and correspondence. If the platform does not respond, the dispute goes to court, where the presentation of evidence and compliance with the pre-trial claim procedure are of key importance.

• Blocking of an account: challenging the grounds and restoring access.
• Withholding of payments and remuneration: reconciliation of reports and acts.
• Fines under the platform's rules: review of proportionality and procedure.
• Return disputes: confirmation of shipment and acceptance of goods.
• Counterfeit goods and rights to designations: claims by rights holders.
• Protection of business reputation: false reviews and ratings.

In every dispute the outcome depends on how complete the evidence is and on compliance with the platform's internal procedure. Support on an ongoing or one-off basis is structured according to the stage of the conflict; our practice covers over 50 sellers.

Lawyer for Wildberries: the specifics of disputes with this platform

Disputes with Wildberries revolve around the platform's offer: it sets out the procedure for accepting goods, deductions for logistics and storage, and the grounds for restricting access to the seller's account. The offer is amended unilaterally, so in a conflict the version in force on the date of the disputed transaction applies. The seller's account is the main source of evidence: sales reports, acceptance certificates, penalty notices, correspondence. For a seller from Kazakhstan, defending the position starts with exporting and certifying this data.

Account blocking paralyses turnover more than a fine does: supplies stop, settlements and access to stock are frozen. The first step is to record the state of things: screenshots of the account, the text of the decision, the correspondence, and to save the version of the offer current on that date. Pages and statuses change, and later there may be nothing left to prove their content. In parallel we examine the ground for the blocking under the offer: breach of selling rules, quality claims, suspected counterfeit goods or a technical failure.

• the version of the offer in force on the date of the disputed transaction, and all annexes to it
• sales reports and acceptance certificates for each supply
• the grounds for and calculation of each deduction from revenue
• the platform's notices of violations and decisions to restrict access
• correspondence with support and the account manager, including dates and the authors of messages
• the terms for working with trademarks and labelling in product listings

Reviewing the correspondence and the platform's decision is the first step, but what matters more is whether the platform actually has the right to take such a measure. If it does, we say so plainly and propose what will genuinely change the situation.

Lawyer for marketplaces: how to read a platform's offer and what to look for in it

A marketplace offer is a contract of adhesion: the seller accepts it in full, without taking part in negotiating the terms. That is why a marketplace lawyer starts by reading the document and its annexes line by line — that is where the grounds for liability lie. The blocks of the offer: registration and access to the seller's account, listing products and warehouse operations, payment and deductions, liability and dispute resolution.

The first block is blocking. Look at the grounds for restricting access: breach of selling rules, buyer complaints, suspected counterfeit goods, rating metrics. What matters is whether the list is exhaustive or open-ended, such as 'other violations': an open-ended list gives the platform discretion and is easier to challenge.

The second block is fines and deductions. Look for the table of violations with the amounts of sanctions and the procedure for deducting them from payouts. A fine can be challenged if the offer does not provide for it for that particular violation, if there was no violation, or if it was caused by the platform's own actions. The latter is the most common: cancelled acceptance slots, delays at the warehouse, order cancellations not the seller's fault.

The third block is changes to the terms and the dispute procedure. Check how the platform notifies about amendments and whether the seller is deemed to have accepted them by continuing to work. Separately, look at the jurisdiction clause and the mandatory pre-action procedure: a claim relies on the clauses of the offer and is supported by exports from the seller's account.

What most often becomes the ground for a claim:

Lawyer for marketplaces: pre-action correspondence with the platform

The pre-action procedure starts with the seller's account: that is where the platform posts notices of deductions, blocked listings and restricted payouts. Contact through support is logged automatically and serves as the initial trace of correspondence. If there is no substantive reply, send an official request on company letterhead with a signature and seal to the platform's legal address stated in the offer, by a method that confirms delivery.

The content of the request depends on the subject of the dispute. If money is withheld without explanation, demand a written itemised calculation with a reference to the clause of the offer on the right to reporting: this obliges the platform to disclose the grounds for each deduction. Check the calculation against your own records — reconciliation reveals double deductions and deductions for returns that never happened.

A claim differs from a request in that it makes a demand: to return what was withheld, unblock a listing, restore access to the account. State the facts, the provisions of the offer and its annexes, references to the contract, the provisions of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the provision of services and the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on private entrepreneurship. Send it by a method that allows the date of delivery to be proved.

Attach documents for each disputed transaction. Disputes over intellectual rights to listing content require separate analysis — here it is enough to flag them, as with issues of protecting designations and the store's IT infrastructure.

• the platform repeats the same template response without any calculation
• no breakdown of deductions is provided after a written request
• the claim was left unanswered within a reasonable time
• the response contradicts the data in the personal account and your primary documentation
• the demand to restore access has not been fulfilled

Lawyer for marketplaces: when a dispute with a platform reaches court

A seller's dispute with a marketplace is heard by a specialised interdistrict economic court under the jurisdiction rules of the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan: both parties are entrepreneurs. The claim is filed at the location of the defendant, and if the platform is registered outside the republic, the rules on contractual jurisdiction from the offer apply. Marketplace contracts often specify a particular jurisdiction or an arbitration clause, so before filing a claim the terms of the offer are checked and their applicability to the dispute is assessed. If a clause deprives the seller of rights usually provided under contracts of this type, it is challenged under the rules on adhesion contracts: consumer protection legislation does not apply to a dispute between two entrepreneurs.

The subject of the claim is recognition of the blocking of a product card or store as unlawful, restoration of access, recovery of withheld amounts and compensation for losses from the suspension of sales. A separate category is counterfeit disputes: a competitor filed a complaint, the product cards were taken down, and the seller proves the lawfulness of putting the goods into circulation. The principle of exhaustion of rights applies, but it is territorial: rights are considered exhausted if the goods were put into circulation in the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union by the right holder itself or with its consent, and only then is the complaint withdrawn. In parallel, a claim for protection of business reputation can be made if the platform or the competitor disseminated defamatory information.

• the marketplace offer and confirmation of its acceptance by the seller
• notifications from the platform about blocking, a fine or removal of a product card
• acts and reports on sales, commission, logistics and deductions
• bank statements and data from the seller's personal account
• the contract with the supplier, invoices for the batch, customs documents, confirmation of the authenticity of the goods
• correspondence with the platform's support and with the competitor who filed the complaint

Lawyer for marketplaces: what to do if the platform withholds revenue

A seller perceives the withholding of revenue by the platform as an injustice, although legally it is a question of the boundaries of the contract. Relations with a marketplace are built on the offer and a services agreement: the platform is entitled to suspend payments in the event of buyer complaints, discrepancies in stock balances, suspicion of counterfeit or inflated activity, or failure to provide documents. Commercial risk is that the goods do not sell, there are many returns, demand has fallen. Breach of contract occurs where the withholding is not based on the offer or is applied for longer and more broadly than provided for.

The first tool is reconciliation. The sales report, the payout report, the movement of goods in the warehouse, and the acts for storage and promotion are compared with the seller's own records. Discrepancies are documented in writing: a reconciliation statement with the items and the period, a demand for payment with a calculation of the debt according to the marketplace's data. Send the request through the personal account and additionally through an official channel, so as to preserve confirmation of the date and content. A significant part of disputed deductions is resolved at the stage of a reasoned claim with references to the offer.

Lawyer for marketplaces: disputes about goods, returns and the seller's rating

In disputes about the quality of goods on a marketplace, the platform most often decides in favour of the buyer: the return is processed on the buyer's application, and a claim is made against the seller after the fact. This can be challenged if the defect arose after the buyer received the goods, the buyer breached the operating rules, or the wrong item was returned. Under the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Protection of Consumer Rights", the buyer must first submit a claim to the seller and only in the event of refusal or silence go to court — this stage gives time to inspect the goods and record their condition. Under the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Protection of Consumer Rights", the buyer must first submit a claim to the seller and only in the event of refusal or silence go to court — this stage gives time to inspect the goods and record their condition. Under the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Protection of Consumer Rights", the buyer must first submit a claim to the seller and only in the event of refusal or silence go to court — this stage gives time to inspect the goods and record their condition. Under the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Protection of Consumer Rights", the buyer must first submit a claim to the seller and only in the event of refusal or silence go to court — this stage gives time to inspect the goods and record their condition. The task of a marketplace lawyer is to gather evidence (correspondence, photos, data on acceptance and dispatch) and build a position in the claim and subsequently in court.

Reviews and ratings are a more delicate matter. The platform is entitled to remove a review that does not relate to the goods, contains insults or unreliable information, but a subjective assessment of "did not like it" remains the buyer's right. A downgrade of the rating due to regular returns or complaints is challenged when it is caused by technical failures, inflated activity or the platform's own errors, rather than the actual quality of the seller's work.

Disputes repeat every month. It is the cause that needs to be addressed, not each individual case. An analysis of the history of disputes over a year to a year and a half, grouped by source, shows that usually three quarters of cases are produced by two or three recurring factors — a description template, the dispatch procedure, labelling. Eliminating them is cheaper than disputing them constantly.

What can be challenged and what falls within the buyer's assessment:

Adjacent to these disputes are matters of brand and content protection — trademarks, copyright in photos and descriptions, the operation of the platform's IT services; these topics are covered in separate materials.

• Unlawful withholding of a refund or refusal to accept goods on formal grounds.
• Deduction of fines for something the seller objectively could not control: a platform failure, loss of cargo by the carrier.
• A rating drop caused by inflated reviews or a technical error in the seller's account.
• Removal of a review containing false information or insults.
• Blocking of listings and suspension of sales without a reasoned justification.
• A claim for compensation for damaged reputation in the event of unjustified public allegations.

Lawyer for marketplaces: a table of where to apply and what to attach

A dispute with a marketplace is rarely resolved by a single letter: first the seller sends the platform a claim through their account, then, if it is refused or ignored, applies to higher instances. To avoid wasting time on the wrong address, it helps to see in advance where an application is filed and which documents are attached to it. Below is a correspondence table for the typical stages of a dispute.

The table covers blocking of a listing and of an account, withholding of payouts, penalties under the offer, and disputes over counterfeit goods and intellectual property rights. The set of documents differs by stage: in some cases screenshots of the account are enough, in others acts and correspondence are needed. A lawyer for marketplaces assesses the prospects of each stage and prepares the package so that the application is not returned on formal grounds.

The platform operates under an offer agreement, not a separate agreement with the seller, so the arguments are based on the terms of the offer, the provisions of Kazakhstan's civil legislation on contracts and contracts of adhesion, and the platform's rules. Trademarks and copyright content are handled by specialists within the practice, and these topics are covered in separate materials.

The outcome of an application depends on how complete the package is and whether the claim matches the instance chosen. Below is a list of documents worth preparing in advance so that each subsequent stage of the dispute relies on evidence already gathered.

• A copy of the platform's offer agreement and confirmation of acceptance of its terms
• Screenshots of the account showing the date, the status of the listing and notifications
• A statement of settlements with the platform: charges, withholdings, penalties
• Correspondence with marketplace support and ticket numbers
• Documents for the goods: certificates, declarations, confirmation of origin
• The claim sent to the platform, with proof of delivery or a reply

The specific procedure and jurisdiction depend on the terms of the platform's offer and the nature of the claim.

Lawyer for marketplaces: related matters — trade marks, IT and copyright

A seller's dispute with a marketplace rarely comes down to just a blocked account or written-off bonuses. The platform is simultaneously the operator of the platform, a party to the service access agreement and the controller of the listing content, so the conflict touches several legal regimes. A lawyer for marketplaces separates the claims: some concern the contract with the platform, some concern exclusive rights to the trade mark, and some concern rights to photographs, descriptions and other content of the listing. Mixing the grounds weakens the position: each is proven by its own set of documents.

An overlap with trade mark protection arises when a listing is blocked following a complaint by the rights holder or a reference to similarity of designations. It is important to establish who owns the mark, whether there is a licence or consent, and whether the mark matches the designation on the listing. A separate layer is the contractual relationship: the offer, the regulations, the procedure for challenging sanctions, and the handling of claims. If the listing contains third-party images, texts or videos, a copyright aspect is added, and it is assessed separately from the blocking dispute.

• We compare the designation on the listing with the trade mark and the documents confirming rights to it.
• We check the photographs, texts and videos in the listing for ownership of copyright.
• We study the contract with the platform, the offer and the regulations on challenging sanctions.
• We assess IT contracts: integrations, access to interfaces, rights to developed solutions.
• We separate the claims under each ground so as not to mix different subjects of proof.
• We determine the course of action: a claim to the platform, an objection to the rights holder or protection of rights to the content.