The impeccable reputation of a legal entity is a convincing guarantor that allows you to attract new commercial partners, promote your own brand, and expand sales markets. Any negative impact on the reputation carries risks to reduce the growth rate of the enterprise and significantly reduce the profit.
Right to protect goodwill
The reputation of the enterprise and organization is protected by various legislative acts. Among them:
- The Civil Code of the Russian Federation in part one legally protects the company's reputation and allows it to be defended by all acceptable methods.
- The decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 05.23.2006 emphasizes the importance of court decisions in restoring the legal entity’s honor and in case of material compensation for reputation losses.
Correcting the reputation of legal entities of all forms of ownership lies in the scope of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. And the civil courts are involved in risk compensation or restoring the company's good name. At the legislative level, the interpretation of the phrase “business reputation” is not fixed. But practicing lawyers and businessmen mean by this concept the totality of reliable data about a particular economic enterprise or commercial organization. This information allows you to get an idea of the business and professional qualities of the company’s employees, decency, compliance with contractual relations and more.
Legal value of business reputation
In the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the phrase "business reputation of a legal entity" occurs only three times. Based on Article 152, 1027 and 1042, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- The business reputation of any legal entity is an intangible good.
- The reputation of a company, firm, organization can be transferred, this is its difference from the reputation of an individual.
- Correction of the reputation of legal entities and individuals is carried out by identical methods.
Transfer of legal entity reputation
If the first and third points mentioned above do not need explanations, then the second can be discussed in more detail. The reputation of the company may be alienated along with tangible and intangible property. The first includes stocks of goods, semi-finished products, buildings, workshops, etc. Intangible property includes trademarks, development of various projects, research results, patents for inventions. Upon transfer of ownership, the well-deserved reputation of the company automatically passes to the new owner. From the moment of transfer of ownership, all concerns associated with maintaining a reputation fall on the shoulders of new owners.
As you can see, the reputation of the organization is a standard asset that has a direct impact on the business activities of this legal entity. An impeccable reputation significantly increases the company's profit, attracts new partners and investors. Negative becomes a barrier between representatives of the company and its potential customers.
Who reviews image restoration cases?
According to article 33 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, cases on protecting reputation in the field of economic activity are in the jurisdiction of arbitration courts. Appeal to the court takes place if the correction of reputation is required as a result of the damage caused to it. Similar circumstances can arise in three cases:
- The fact of wide dissemination of information about the legal entity.
- The clearly defamatory nature of this information.
- Inconsistency of the disclosed information with real facts.
The resolution of the Plenum of the RF Armed Forces discloses these points in more detail. So, the dissemination of information may include posting in the media, on the network, during public speaking, during interviews of various statements relating to the enterprise. Defamatory information is knowingly untruthful facts that are stated by the slanderer. Inaccurate data may relate to various sectors of the enterprise — tax evasion, low-quality products, violations of clauses of business contracts, non-payment of bills for obligations and other things. Such actions lead to the loss of the reputation of the legal entity, and representatives of the enterprise or organization are entitled to demand damages from the slanderer.
Facts and Judgments
As this document emphasizes, a distinction should be made between value judgments and subjective opinions and knowingly false statements about facts, the validity of which can be directly verified. Judgments and conjectures cannot be verified, which means that they will not be the subject of legal proceedings.
If the case on the correction of reputation is submitted to the court, the plaintiff has the right to demand from the defendant immediate action to refute false information. For example, publicly acknowledge their mistakes, correct or cancel the publication that caused the trial.
Image restoration
If the organization suffered losses due to the dissemination of defamatory information, then the correction of the reputation through a court decision can be performed with compensation for material damage. In this case, the plaintiff's lawyers may encounter some difficulties. The fact is that in court we will talk about lost profits. And even if you attract all the witnesses and piles of unsigned contracts, the real damage will still be impossible to assess.
It is easy to earn a reputation as an unscrupulous partner, and it is much more difficult to restore justice. Even with a fair verdict and compensation of any amount as pecuniary damage, the news of dishonesty of the representatives of this company will spread far and long, and no defendant will be able to compensate for all losses.
Criminal liability
Contradictory Russian judicial practice allows for the protection of the reputation of the enterprise with the help of certain provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, this refers to Art. 42 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, which describes in what cases a legal entity can be recognized as a victim. For example, this article applies to such offenses:
- illegal use of a brand or trademark;
- illegal receipt or disclosure of information representing commercial, banking or tax secrets.
Protecting business reputation, law enforcement officers can initiate a criminal case with its subsequent transfer to court. And the legal entity, for its part, has the right to submit a claim for compensation for the damage caused. In civil proceedings, such compensation may be tangible or intangible. Among the latter - an official refutation of false information, a public apology, etc. But in the framework of criminal proceedings, the issue of material compensation is not considered.
Legal regulation
It is impossible not to admit that at present, most of the legal levers responsible for correcting business reputation are hopelessly outdated. The issues of compensation for material damage require special study and consolidation in the form of a separate article of the Civil Code of our country. Within the framework of possible changes, it will not be superfluous to work out the terminology, which should correspond to the current protection requests. For example, there is still no unambiguous explanation of the term “moral harm” and a corresponding legal assessment of this concept.
Currently, lawyers are operating with an information letter from the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation from 1999. More than 15 years have passed since its publication. Many provisions are no longer relevant in the realities of today's economic environment. Amendments to this normative act or adoption of a new legal document will have a beneficial effect on the legislation of our country and relieve tension in matters of compensation for moral damage.