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2023: The Federal Tax Service and the FSB revealed schemes for the shadow production of beer for 2 billion liters. This is more volumes of leading plants
The Federal Tax Service (FTS) and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have discovered two tax evasion schemes in Russia from the sale of beer. Illegal producers annually produce more than 2 billion liters of unaccounted beer, which exceeds the production volumes of leading factories. The amount of unpaid excise taxes and VAT is calculated in tens of billions of rubles. Read more here.
2022: The share of illegal alcohol turnover in the Russian market is 20-25%
The share of illegal alcohol turnover in the Russian market is 20-25%, a representative of the Union of Alcohol Producers said in December 2022.
2021
HSE: Share of illegal alcohol in Russia - 27%
The volume of illegal turnover of strong alcoholic beverages in Russia in 2021 amounted to 27% (about 611 million bottles) of the total amount presented on the Russian market. This was announced on February 9, 2022 by experts from the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE).
According to them, the share of illegal strong alcohol was defined as the difference between total sales and the legal supply on the market. The last value is the sum of production and import. At the same time, export supplies and inventory adjustments are not included in the account.
The HSE estimate is based on data from Rosstat and Rosalkogolregulirovanie. In 2021, sales of strong alcoholic beverages amounted to 1.56 billion liters. Retail trade remains the main channel of sale (98%), the rest is accounted for by the catering segment.
According to the HSE, with a 70% reduction in illegal turnover, the profit of bona fide market participants may grow by 17-18 billion rubles a year. At the same time, state revenues may increase by 73-79 billion rubles a year, mainly due to an increase in excise tax revenues (plus 64-69 billion rubles), experts predict. They note that this can be achieved, among other things, by introducing mandatory labeling of alcohol.
The head of Rosalkogolregulirovanie Igor Aleshin in February 2022 said that the share of illegal alcohol over the past few years has noticeably decreased. This, in particular, is indicated by an increase in the receipt of excise taxes to the budget: in 2021, 23.3 billion rubles more were received than a year earlier (2020 - 381.7 billion rubles, 2021 - 405 billion rubles). At the same time, the volume of alcohol sales according to the results of last year remained at about the level of 2020, he said.[1]
Illegal alcohol trade in Runet increased to 2.75 billion rubles
In 2021, the turnover of illegal online alcohol sales in Russia reached 2.75 billion rubles, an increase of 266 million rubles compared to 2020. Such data on December 28, 2021 were provided by Group-IB, a company specializing in information security. For comparison, in 2017 the same indicator reached 1.7 billion rubles, in 2018 already 2.1 billion rubles, in 2019 and 2020 it stopped at 2.5 billion rubles.
In total, experts identified about 3 thousand sites, channels in instant messengers and groups in social networks selling alcohol bypassing the current legislation. Telegram has become the main "alco-messenger" - the number of "specialized" channels offering the purchase and delivery of alcoholic beverages has grown 2.5 times over the year, the study says.
Over the past four years, due to large-scale blocking by companies that protect brands on the Internet, and Roskomnadzor, the number of underground alcohol market sites has halved: if in 2018 there were about 4,000, in 2019 there are already 2,500 resources, in 2020 and 2021 - 2,000 sites. However, for each such alcohol market, "alcohol kings" prepare "spare airfields" - "mirrors" of the main sites, on average, 15 domains for each alcohol market. During the study in 2021, experts managed to discover the largest network, which consisted of about 122 related domain names. This is due to the desire of merchants to ensure business stability: if one domain is blocked, all content will quickly "move" to another and continue brisk trading.
Against the background of a decrease in the number of sites, the audience of alcohol stores in social networks and instant messengers is growing. The first found about 300 diverse groups and accounts offering the sale of home-delivered booze as well as counterfeit alcohol. Despite the decrease in the number of groups on social networks, the number of their subscribers increased by 3.8 times.
The growth of underground online alcohol trading in Group-IB is explained not only by an increase in alcohol prices, but also by the reorientation of Russians to online purchases. At the same time, the official ban on the delivery of alcoholic beverages does not bother either the residents of the country themselves or businessmen. In 2021, the number of queries in the Yandex search engine with the phrase "buy alcohol with delivery" doubled, reaching 108 thousand, experts say.
According to Group-IB, with the average attendance of a website selling alcohol with delivery, 1965 people per month and the average cost of one purchase of 1,557 rubles, the earnings of 1,700 online stores in 2021 reached 624 million rubles. The turnover of sites offering fakes amounted to 225.6 million rubles. The turnover of alcohol sales in social networks and instant messengers is 1.9 billion rubles with an audience of 82.4 million users.[2]
 | In 2021, the turnover of illegal online alcohol sales increased again, but these figures may only be the tip of the "iceberg" due to the latency of the shadow business. Underground online alcohol trading entails high risks for buyers: there is no guarantee that the product will be an original, and not a health-threatening fake. It should be borne in mind that for manufacturers of branded alcohol, counterfeiting of their products can also result in serious reputational risks and financial losses. told Andrey Busargin, Deputy General Director of Group-IB in the direction of protection against digital risks |  |
2020: Sales of illegal alcohol remained at 2.5 billion rubles
The volume of illegal turnover on the Russian Internet at the end of 2020 reached 2.5 billion rubles, which approximately corresponds to the indicator of one year ago. Such data on December 29 were cited by Group-IB, a company specializing in preventing cyber attacks.
According to experts, the turnover of the shadow market for the sale of alcohol in Runet remained due to restrictions associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and a reduction in supplies to corporate parties, holidays and other public events, as well as to small drinking establishments and retail outlets.
Due to self-isolation and restrictions on offline trading , the number of searches for online purchases of alcohol with delivery almost doubled in 2020. Moreover, the peak fell on the first wave of coronavirus - in April 2020, the number of search queries "buy alcohol with delivery" four times exceeded the number of requests a year earlier. At the same time, buyers increasingly ordered alcohol not for corporate parties, friendly feasts or family holidays, but exclusively "for themselves," the study says.
According to Group-IB estimates, the average traffic on the site that sells alcohol with delivery in 2020 was 120 users per day or 3,600 people per month. With a minimum conversion of 1% and an average cost of one purchase of 1,250 rubles, 2,000 online stores earn from 90 million rubles a month. This is more than 1.08 billion rubles per year.
The main sources of alcohol purchases at the end of the year were Instagram and Telegram, Group-IB notes. In terms of sales, social networks and instant messengers have already bypassed traditional online resources. Telegram has identified more than 50 active channels and groups (in 2019 - there were 30).
Also in 2020, Group-IB specialists found about 50 resources that sell duplicates of well-known brands of alcoholic beverages, as openly stated on the sites themselves.[3]
2019: Group-IB: The turnover of illegal online sale of alcohol exceeded 2.5 billion rubles
On December 27, 2019, the company Group-IB announced that the turnover of the "shadow" sales market alcohol Internet in 2019 exceeded 2.5 billion rubles. This is almost 400 million (+ rubles 19%) more than in 2018. In total, the experts of the direction F6 Digital Risk Protection (ранее Brand Protection) found about 2,500 Internet sites, accounts or groups in, social networks trading alcohol bypassing the current legislation. Experts note that mass blocking of sites Roskomnadzor with remote sale of alcohol leads to the "migration" of underground sellers to, and messengers mobile applications social networks.
For the third year in a row, Group-IB Brand Protection specialists have been measuring the turnover of illegal online alcohol sales. In 2019, about 2,500 sites, accounts and groups in social networks selling alcoholic beverages on the Internet were discovered (in 2018 there were more of them - about 4,000). The grid of the largest online alcohol store, which was discovered during the study by Brand Protection specialists, consisted of 94 related domains. This amount of resources is necessary so that alcohol sellers, in the event of blocking one of their sites, can quickly "move" to another.
Mass blockages continued in 2019 by Roskomnadzor (RKN) of resources with the remote sale of alcohol led, on the one hand, to a reduction in the number of sites, and on the other, to the introduction of other formats of trade and "migration" of alcohol dealers to instant messengers. Accounts are used to advertise, promote the online store itself, contact customers and even hunt new hires to expand illegal businesses. Brand Protection Group-IB experts have discovered about 30 large alco-channels on Telegram. Such Telegram stores are characterized by a large number of subscribers from 20,000 to 50,000 thousand people, as well as special chat bots for the delivery or sale of large consignments of goods. Here, in Telegram, new sellers are hunting. One of the specialized Telegram channels has announced a set for a master class of illegal online alcohol sales with guaranteed earnings of 100 thousand rubles per month.
Traditionally, illegal business is also widely represented on Instagram - at least 50 Insta stores offer alcohol with delivery at wholesale or reduced prices. Mobile applications designed for the sale of alcohol use a proven scheme for the sale of souvenirs, "gift" to which strong alcoholic beverages go. Such schemes are used by both resellers selling alcohol from retail chains on the Internet and fraudsters selling counterfeit goods.
Brand Protection Group-IB specialists estimated the economic indicators of the shadow alcohol market in 2019: the average traffic on the site selling alcohol with delivery is 200 users per day or 6,000 people per month. With a minimum conversion (1%) and an average cost of one purchase of 1,390 rubles, 2,430 online stores earn from 202.7 million rubles a month. In addition, Group-IB experts have recorded about 70 resources that sell duplicates of well-known brands of alcoholic beverages, which is often openly mentioned on the sites themselves. Site traffic with fakes averages 160 visitors per day or 4,230 per month. The average check on such a resource is 492 rubles. With the same conversion of 1%, the income of sellers of duplicate alcohol is 1.7 million rubles a month; 20.4 million rubles annually.
Thus, the turnover of illegal online alcohol sales at the end of 2019 amounted to about 2.5 billion rubles against 2.1 billion rubles a year earlier (+ 19%). In 2019, consumer demand also increased significantly - the number of searches for the phrase "Buy alcohol" in 2019 compared to last year in search engines increased by 34.6%. As a rule, peaks of such requests fall on pre-holiday and holidays - New Year, Christmas, May holidays, March 8, etc.
| | "In 2019, the turnover of illegal online alcohol sales increased again, although the growth rate is slowing down and the number of illegal alcohol networks as a result of blocking has decreased. Since the demand from buyers does not decrease, "alcohol kings" are looking for new formats of underground trade and are actively developing time-tested channels for illegal implementation - instant messengers and social networks, " | |
Group-IB stressed that the retail sale of alcohol remotely in Russia is prohibited and official manufacturers cannot legally distribute alcohol online. This niche is occupied by illegal sellers: in 2018, the turnover of the "shadow" market for the sale of alcohol on the Internet amounted to 2.1 billion rubles, and in 2017 - 1, 7 billion rubles.
Notes
- ↑ The HSE reported that almost a third of alcohol on the Russian market is illegal
- ↑ Alcohol markets went to messengers: Group-IB estimated the turnover of illegal online sale of alcohol in 2021
- ↑ Social networks steal a degree: Group-IB estimated the turnover of illegal online sale of alcohol in 2020
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