Chrono24 has cut Russia out of its global network.
Sellers based in Russia have been removed from the platform, and it will not accept sales from within the Federation.
Since March 1, the marketplace has suspended trading in luxury watches for customers and dealers in Russia. For this purpose, all offers from Russia were taken off the net, the company said today.
“The events of the past few days contradict our value system — both humanly and entrepreneurially. Therefore, we have made the decision to temporarily stop our marketplace offer in Russia,” says Tim Stracke, co-CEO and founder of Chrono24.
“Our team includes people from Ukraine as well as from Russia. Therefore, this conflict fills us with pain not only from a business perspective, but also internally among the employees,” Mr Stracke adds.
Bulgari’s CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin said last week that there were signs Russian customers were buying more jewellery and watches as sanctions bit, oligarchs’ assets were frozen and the ruble tumbled in value.
Chrono24 hints that it was seeing similar activity. “In recent months, investors have increasingly shifted their attention to luxury watches from Rolex, Patek Philippe and many other brands in order to invest their assets independently of currency fluctuations,” the company’s statement on boycotting Russia says.
Chrono24’s 480 employees are fundraising for Ukrainians caught up in the conflict in their country, while its CEO is supporting Reporters without Borders, which fights for freedom of the press in oppressive countries like Russia.
The country is threatening journalists with jail if they do not stick to the country’s official position on Ukraine, which includes a ban on describing the conflict as an “invasion” or “war”.
“What is the most effective way to donate to the Ukraine war? I think by supporting independent journalism in Russia. Only the end of misinformation and fake news could generate some kind of opposition in Russia. For this reason I decided to donate to Reporters Without Borders https://rsf.org/en or to their German department https://lnkd.in/d22EngQf,” Mr Stracke says in a post on LinkedIn.
“I will match any donation of up to EUR 1,000 from my LinkedIn network to any free press organization (up to EUR 10k in total). Just post the amount you donated in the comments or send a PM.”
