A legal entity may seek legal recourse to establish the inaccuracy of information in a separate proceeding, if the person who disseminated such information is not precisely known - Joint Chamber of the SC Civil Cassation Court

In order to protect its personal non-property rights, including the right to business reputation, a legal entity may seek legal recourse to establish the inaccuracy of information in a separate proceeding under para. 3 of part 4 of Article 277 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, if the person who disseminated the false information cannot be identified with certainty.

This conclusion, which ensures the uniformity of case law, was reached by the Joint Chamber of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court.

The case in question was filed by a limited liability company on the basis of para. 3, part 4, Article 277 of the Civil Code of Ukraine in a separate proceeding to establish the inaccuracy of the information, referring to the fact that the person who disseminated the inaccurate information, as well as the owner of the online publication in which the information was published, were unknown.

The district court granted the application. On reconsideration, the court of appeal overturned the decision of the court and refused to grant the application on the grounds that it did not identify the owner of the website or the distributor (author) of the material in question.

When referring the case to the Joint Chamber of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court, the panel of judges of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court noted that the practice of the Supreme Court provides for two approaches to the application of para. 3, part 4, Article 277 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, namely, whether a legal entity may seek to establish the fact of unreliability of such information and refute it.

The Joint Chamber of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court noted that if the person who spread false information is unknown, the individual whose right has been violated may apply to the court to establish the fact that such information is false (para. 3, part 4, Article 277 of the Civil Code of Ukraine).

A legal entity is able to have the same civil rights and obligations (civil legal capacity) as an individual, except for those that by their nature can only belong to a person (part 1 of Article 91 of the Civil Code of Ukraine).

A legal entity has the right to business reputation, and such a right by its very nature cannot belong solely to an individual.

In order to protect its personal non-property rights, including the right to business reputation, a legal entity may use both general remedies (Chapter 3 of the Civil Code of Ukraine) and special remedies for the protection of personal non-property rights provided for in Chapter 20 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, in particular, to demand the refutation of disseminated false information, to respond to such information, etc.

Taking into account the principle of reasonableness, para. 3, part 4 of Art. 277 of the Civil Code of Ukraine should be interpreted in the context of the content of part 1 of Art. 91 and part 1 of Art. 94 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. In other words, since a legal entity, although being an artificial entity, invisible, imperceptible to the touch and existing only in the dimension of legal reality, has universal legal capacity, a legal entity has the right to business reputation, and in order to protect this right, a legal entity may apply to the court in a separate proceeding to establish the inaccuracy of this information if the person who disseminated the inaccurate information is unknown.

In this case, an analysis of the court of appeal's ruling shows that the only grounds for rejecting the application were the lack of information about the website owner or the distributor (author) of the material in question.

At the same time, the lack of information about the person who spread the false information is the basis for consideration of the application to establish the fact of false information in a separate proceeding in accordance with the rules set forth in Section IV of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine. If the person who disseminated the disputed information becomes known during the consideration of the case in separate proceedings, the court shall dismiss the application without consideration and inform the interested parties that they have the right to bring an action on general grounds.

Having found that there was no information about the owner or distributor (author) of the material in question, the court of appeal did not assess the reliability of the contested information, without actually verifying whether the interested parties named by the applicant in the application were the owners or distributors (authors) of the material in question.

In these circumstances, the court of appeal came to a premature conclusion and dismissed the request to establish the fact of inaccuracy of the information and its refutation.

The Resolution of the Supreme Court of 11 December 2023 in case No. 504/4099/16-ц (proceedings No. 61-11424сво23) - https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/115750120.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.