Legal Protection of Reputation
Legal services for the protection of business reputation. Preparation of a lawsuit in court for the protection of reputation.
Despite the fact that at first glance the issue of protecting business reputation may seem quite simple to resolve, any case of such disputes requires a separate legal assessment and a detailed analysis of law enforcement practice. In this regard, in order to protect your business reputation, it is better to seek the help of an experienced lawyer in a timely manner, who will be able to competently resolve the issues that have arisen and defend your interests in court.
The business reputation of the organization is of great importance for its further development. Indeed, depending on how potential customers perceive the organization, its fate, stability, profit and stability in the economic market depend. Business reputation is a certain prevailing opinion about the organization. Basically, such an opinion is formed in the course of the activities of such an organization, based on its positive and negative aspects of behavior in the market. In addition, the reputation of the organization may be influenced by the statements and all kinds of reviews of third parties. Such information originating from third parties can be both reliable and unreliable, aimed at reducing the confidence of potential customers.
In accordance with Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, every citizen, as well as a legal entity, has the right to demand in court a refutation of information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation, if the disseminator of such information does not prove that they are true. To apply this method of protection in practice, it is necessary to have 3 conditions:
- information should be disseminated;
- information must be discrediting;
- information must not be true.
If during the consideration of a dispute on the protection of business reputation one of the specified conditions cannot be proved, the court will refuse to satisfy the stated requirements.
The procedure for considering disputes on the protection of business reputation
As a general rule, a claim for protection has several requirements for satisfaction, namely the requirement to invalidate the information, the suppression of the dissemination of such information, the requirement to publish a retraction, and, of course, the requirement to pay damages in the form of actual damages or lost profits.
To protect your business reputation, you should go to court. The first thing to be proven in court is that the defamatory information was indeed disseminated. To do this, it is necessary to record the fact of the dissemination of discrediting information, if necessary, resort to the help of a notary. The issue of certification by a notary of data on information discrediting the business reputation of a company becomes especially relevant in the case of dissemination of such data on the Internet. In this case, the so-called notarization of the web page will be appropriate for the formation of an evidence base. Such certification consists in the examination by a notary of the information contained on a particular site, fixing the content of this information as of the date of inspection. Such actions are recommended to be performed due to the fact that the information of interest, after its distribution, can be deleted by the person who posted it.
The law does not establish a mandatory claim procedure for disputes on the protection of business reputation.
It is important to note that in order to restore violated rights within the framework of protecting business reputation, both special methods of protection can be used, such as refuting widespread defamatory information, publishing one’s answer, deleting relevant information, for example, from the Internet, and general civil remedies, for example, compensation for moral damage or compensation for losses caused by the dissemination of defamatory information.
