Model Donna Feldman presents Panasonic's flat-panel televisions in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Russian electronics chains plan to stop selling products made by Panasonic, because they don’t want to have to buy its goods through middlemen, Bloomberg news reports.

Eldorado, M.Video, Mir and Technosila and mobile-phone sellers Svyaznoi and OOO Evroset, representing about 60 percent of Russian electronic goods sales, joined forces to fight for a legal and transparent market, Alexander Zayonts, vice president of M.Video, said at a press conference in Moscow today.

“We’ve decided to fully reject purchases of Panasonic,” Zayonts said. The chains are demanding the Japanese company sell its products direct to retailers instead of through intermediaries that increase prices and hurt margins.

Retail sales in Russia’s consumer electronics market are $15 billion annually and growing at 30 percent a year, the chains said. About 80 percent of the products sold are imports.

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