Рубежи признания розничного инвестора потребителем

Закон. 2022. № 12. С. 84–94.

Molodyko K., Травин Г. Д.

Currently approximately every sixth Russian adult has an account open with a  Russian broker. Stock market transactions recently have transcended their status as a  premium service for a  small group of the  wealthy, and are widely available to the  masses, which has drastically increased their importance within society. However, in Russia retail investors are not considered consumers of financial services. The  article analyzes the  possibility and necessity of applying “consumer” status to investors based on foreign (especially American) experience. Historically in Russia, certain consumer categories have not been governed by the general provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. According to the authors, not necessarily every consumer is subject to said act. Authors consider applying a reasonable originalist approach to the  construction of legal acts. In that sense protection from commercial risks inherent to investing, especially in foreign assets, has never been the  purpose of the  act in question. Moreover, continuous active high-stakes trading in the  stock market shall be considered entrepreneurship. Following from this, such investors shall have limited protection and are to be excluded from the consumer protection regulation, which is only to be applied to smaller investors choosing stocks and bonds of Russian issuers traded in the Russian exchanges. Such investments to a reasonable extent shall also be covered by the  guarantees provided by the  Deposit Insurance Agency in the  event of bankruptcy of the broker. All the other investors shall then be considered selfemployed subject to professional income tax, and the ones with extensively high profits shall be considered entrepreneurs

Keywords: потребитель, фондовая биржа, stock exchange, consumer, retail investors, professional income tax, налог на профессиональный доход, self-employed persons, самозанятые граждане, originalism, розничный инвестор, ориджинализм