Numbers That Leave You Feeling Hopeless
The law is on the seller’s side: a marketplace is a professional custodian, it is responsible for the goods. But when it comes to practice, sellers run into a wall.
That wall has a name: the new arbitration court filing fee.
After a sweeping increase in Russian arbitration court fees, pursuing legal rights for businesses has become openly prohibitive:
| Claim amount | Filing fee (pre-reform) | Filing fee (now) |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 RUB | ~14,000 RUB | ~33,000 RUB |
| 5,000,000 RUB | ~45,000 RUB | ~165,000 RUB |
| 10,000,000 RUB | ~73,000 RUB | ~325,000 RUB |
| 50,000,000 RUB | ~200,000 RUB | ~1,600,000 RUB |
A seller’s entire working capital burned up. Suppliers are demanding payment. And to simply begin fighting for their money in court, they need another 300,000–500,000 rubles in cash.
Marketplaces know this math very well. That is precisely why they calmly offer “preferential rates” — confident that most sellers won’t be able to afford the “entrance ticket” to the court system.
Method 1. Application for Deferral or Installment Payment of the Filing Fee
If there are no funds in the account due to the emergency, we file an application with supporting bank statements and tax authority certificates showing the absence of available funds. The court grants a deferral of the filing fee until a decision is reached in the case.
Legal basis: Article 102 of the Arbitration Procedural Code, Article 64 of the Tax Code.
Practical result: the filing fee is paid later, from the funds recovered from the marketplace. The seller enters the litigation without upfront lump-sum costs.
Method 2. Collective (Group) Action
Instead of each seller paying filing fees and commissioning expert assessments separately, multiple sellers with similar claims join together.
What this delivers:
- litigation costs, expert assessments, and legal representation are divided among all participants,
- the cost of entering the courtroom drops significantly,
- the combined weight of claims exerts much more pressure on the marketplace than individual cases,
- a favorable precedent benefits all participants in the group.
Method 3. Litigation Financing (Legal Funding)
In large cases, litigation financiers — law firms or specialized investment funds — are brought in to cover court costs and filing fees in exchange for a percentage of the recovered amount.
How it works:
- the seller pays nothing out of pocket for the litigation,
- the investor covers all costs (filing fees, expert assessments, legal representation),
- if the case is won, the investor receives an agreed percentage of the recovered sum,
- if the case is lost, all costs remain with the investor.
This mechanism is available for significant cases — generally from 5–10 million rubles in losses.
Which Tool Is Right for You
Fee deferral — available to almost any seller who has no funds in the account due to the emergency. Requires documentary proof of financial condition.
Collective action — optimal when multiple sellers were harmed by the same event (one fire, one warehouse). Requires at least two claimants with similar claims.
Litigation financing — for large losses where the claim amount makes external funding economically justified.
Read Also
- Court Filing Fees for Marketplace Claims in Russia: Three Legal Routes When You Cannot Afford 300,000 Roubles
- Warehouse Fire at a Marketplace: Sellers’ Rights and 4 Myths That Block Compensation
Don’t let the filing fee cost you millions in compensation. We will assess your company’s financial position, prepare the documentation for a fee deferral application, and help you enter the litigation without unmanageable upfront costs.