Izvestia: the import of "grey" smartphones into the Russian Federation has actually stopped

Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, told Izvestia about the termination of the "grey" import of smartphones to the Russian Federation. He notes that customs no longer allows such devices, and the problems with suppliers of "grey" smartphones began in February. According to the expert, this may be due to a change in the leadership of the FCS — Ruslan Davydov has been appointed acting head of the department.

"But most importantly, a year has passed since the departure of global smartphone brands from the Russian market. During this time, the largest market participants have established a civilized parallel import — with the payment of all fees, taxes and duties. There is no longer any need to saturate store shelves with goods at any price, including to the detriment of the budget", - Murtazin said.

The FCS informed the publication that the import of electronics without observing customs formalities is contraband, and customs officers are fighting illegal shipments as planned.

Murtazin did not rule out that the volume of imports could push the state to strengthen the fight against "grey" schemes. According to the expert, in 2021, about 5% of smartphones — about 1.6 million units — got into the Russian Federation in this way, and in 2022 - already 30%, about 7.8 million units. The specialist believes that the situation is connected with the termination of official supplies of gadgets and debugging of the parallel import mechanism.

"Parallel import involves the official passage of customs, payment of duties, shipment of goods to a specific recipient, and with grey import, as a rule, goods are not declared or issued for cheaper products. For example, gadgets can be transported under the guise of packaging boxes for them", - one of the participants in the electronics market told Izvestia.

According to Murtazin, "grey" smartphones can cost up to 30% cheaper than imported parallel imports, but the purchase of such devices is associated with many additional risks. In particular, the buyer, as a rule, will not have a guarantee, and the one-day firms that provided them will not fulfill their obligations. In addition, in this way, a used gadget can be sold under the guise of a new one, as well as devices that are impossible or difficult to activate in the Russian Federation, including stolen smartphones, which, according to the expert, is rare.

Andrey Malyutin, head of Telecom at diHouse, called the purchase of "grey" smartphones a lottery, and David Borzilov, sales director of Megafon, noted that such gadgets can be supplied with settings that are not supported in Russia.

"As a result, when using 4G, the user may encounter low mobile Internet speed. Also, some functions on such smartphones may be blocked at the software level", - Borzilov said.