Disputes concerning the protection of the business reputation of legal entities in the commercial sphere fall to be considered by the commercial courts – SC CivCC

A dispute regarding the refutation of information that concerns the commercial activity of legal entities and has been disseminated on the website of an individual entrepreneur is subject to consideration in commercial, rather than civil, proceedings. Even where one of the defendants is named as a natural person (the author), the status of the resource owner as a business entity and the nature of the information itself determine the subject-matter jurisdiction of the case.

Such conclusions were reached by the Supreme Court as part of the panel of judges of the Second Judicial Chamber of the Civil Cassation Court.

In the case under review, a group of companies brought a claim against a sole trader and the author of an article seeking a declaration that the information was untrue, its refutation, and compensation for moral damage. The claim was based on the fact that an online publication had released an article alleging purported links between the group of companies and the aggressor state, the importation of goods from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus in breach of sanctions, as well as the freezing of accounts and the existence of criminal proceedings.

The courts of first instance and of appeal partially allowed the claim in civil proceedings. They found certain statements to be untrue and awarded moral damages against the defendants.

On the defendants’ cassation appeals, which concerned, inter alia, the courts’ breach of the rules of jurisdiction, the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court set aside the decisions of the lower courts and closed the proceedings in the case, formulating the following legal conclusions.

The right of access to a court is exercised on the grounds and in the manner prescribed by law. Each of the procedural codes establishes limitations on the range of issues that may be determined within the relevant judicial procedures. Those limitations are directed at maintaining an optimal balance between a person’s right to judicial protection and the principles of legal certainty, efficiency and expedition of the judicial process.

Part 1 of Article 19 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine provides that the courts consider, in civil proceedings, cases arising from civil, land, labour, family, housing and other legal relations, save for cases the consideration of which is effected in other proceedings.

The subject-matter and personal jurisdiction of the commercial courts, that is, the aggregate of the powers of the commercial courts to hear cases assigned to their competence, is defined in Article 20 of the Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine.

Pursuant to para. 14 of Part 1 of Article 20 of the Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine, the commercial courts consider cases in disputes arising in connection with the carrying on of commercial activity (save for the cases provided for by part 2 of that article), and other cases in the instances prescribed by law, including cases in disputes concerning the protection of business reputation, except for disputes to which a party is a natural person who is neither an entrepreneur nor a self-employed person.

In the case reviewed by the court of cassation, the subject-matter of the dispute is the protection of the business reputation of legal entities, and the disseminated information concerns their direct commercial activity (importation, dealings with counterparties, financial position). The contested article was published on a website the owner of which is a sole trader.

Accordingly, an analysis of the content of the contested information demonstrates that that information relates to the commercial sphere of the claimants.

Pursuant to Part 1 of Article 94 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, a legal entity has the right to the inviolability of its business reputation, to the secrecy of correspondence, to information and to other personal non-property rights that may belong to it. The personal non-property rights of a legal entity are protected in accordance with Chapter 3 of that Code.

By virtue of Part 1 of Article 201 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, business reputation is a personal non-property benefit protected by civil legislation, while Part 2 of Article 34 of the Commercial Code of Ukraine indicates that the dissemination in any form of untrue, inaccurate or incomplete information relating to a person or to the activity of a business entity which has caused or could have caused harm to the business reputation of the business entity constitutes the discrediting of the business entity.

The Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court observed that such disputes between legal entities and business entities in the commercial sphere are to be considered under the rules of commercial proceedings.

The court of cassation further emphasised that in cases concerning the protection of business reputation a natural person and a natural person–entrepreneur constitute one and the same legally indivisible person. Since the owner of the website is a sole trader who acted within the scope of his commercial activity in disseminating the article, joining him to the proceedings simultaneously also as a natural person does not alter the commercial character of the dispute and cannot serve as a ground for considering the case in civil proceedings.

The Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court clarified that compliance with the rules of jurisdiction forms part of the concept of a “tribunal established by law” within the meaning of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Breach of those rules constitutes a mandatory ground for setting aside judicial decisions irrespective of the arguments advanced in the cassation appeal, and leads to the closure of the proceedings in the case.

Resolution of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court of 29 July 2026 in case No. 155/1271/23 (proceedings No. 61-13226св25) – https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/138681018.

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