Search results : 248

On 24 April 2022, certain amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences that had been adopted by the State Duma on 6 April and signed into law on 16 April 2022, entered into force. They relate, in particular, to the ban on public denial (including in the media and on the Internet) of the “decisive role of the Soviet people in the defeat of Nazi Germany and the humanitarian mission of the USSR in the liberation of European countries.” Such a ban had been introduced earlier as Article 6.1 of the 1995 Federal Statute “On Perpetuating the Victory...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered a judgment in which, for the first time, it refers to the notion of SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation). In its judgment of 15 March 2022, in the case of OOO Memo v. Russia, the ECtHR expresses its concerns about the risk for democracy of court proceedings instituted with a view to limiting public participation. The case concerns a civil defamation suit brought by a Russian regional state body against a media company. The ECtHR found that allowing executive bodies to bring defamation proceedings against members of the...

In an order of 30 March 2022, the President of the General Court of the European Union rejected the application for interim measures submitted by RT France in case T-125/22 R (RT France/Council). On 1 March 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a Decision pursuant to Article 29 of the Treaty on European Union and a Regulation pursuant to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) suspending the broadcasting activities of certain media, including RT France, in and towards the European Union (see IRIS 2022-3:1/6 and the Observatory’s note on this subject)....

On 8 March 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided to apply an urgent interim measure in the case of ANO RID Novaya Gazeta and Others v. Russia. In the interests of the parties and the proper conduct of the proceedings before it, and having regard to the exceptional context of the war in Ukraine in which the request has been lodged, the ECtHR invited the Russian authorities, under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, to abstain until further notice from actions and decisions aimed at full blocking and termination of the activities of Novaya Gazeta, and from other actions that in...

On 3 March 2022, the Arbitration Court of the Kirov Region issued a judgment in the case of Entertainment One UK Ltd vs. Kozhevnikov Ivan Vladimirovich (an individual entrepreneur). The lawsuit was filed on 9 September 2021, when the claimant demanded RUB 40 000 (then EUR 500) for copyright violations, by the respondent, of the exclusive rights for the use of trademarks Peppa Pig and Daddy Pig through illegal reproduction of their images. The court dismissed the claims. It found that although in the Russian Federation foreign entities enjoyed the same rights as Russian ones (part 1 of Article...