MOSCOW, April 11 (RAPSI) – Major retailers claim that Yandex, the operator of Russia’s largest search engine, is promoting goods that are imported without rights holder permission, Kommersant newspaper writes Friday.

Retailers believe that the online company should be held accountable for the sale of counterfeit goods on Yandex.Market.

“Yandex and its advertising services form up to 80% of the traffic for some sellers who offer products alleged to be counterfeit,” said Alexander Tynkovan, president of M.video and presidium member of the Retail Companies Association (ACORT).

ACORT is an association of Russia’s largest retailers, including Eldorado, Media Markt, Euroset, Enter, and X5 Retail.

“This is part of the parallel import problem,” said ACORT Executive Director Andrei Karpov. Yandex, as an information intermediary, promotes the sale of suspect goods imported to Russia without rights holder permission. The companies have notified Yandex that the sale of counterfeit products via Yandex.Market shops is in violation of the law, but Yandex refuses to take action without a court ruling.

According to Yandex, ACORT’s statement “should be carefully analyzed for possible damage to the company’s business reputation.”

“Yandex.Market acts in strict compliance with the law on advertising when offering products online,” the company said.