Securing and analysing
We have the material certified by a notary, take it apart phrase by phrase and determine what can be challenged as a statement of fact and what cannot.
PRACTICE / 07
Protection of business reputation, honour and dignity
We take down what is false, secure the evidence and recover the loss.
- First step
- Notarial certification
- Platforms
- Media, review sites, social networks
- Consultation
- Free with an engagement
A publication outlives the scandal. A review, an article or a messenger post reaches the search results and stays there: seen by the bank before a loan, by a counterparty before a deal and by a candidate before accepting a job.
This has to be dealt with quickly and in the right order: first secure the material, then demand — not the other way round. Otherwise, by the time the claim is filed, the evidence has gone.
What we do
- Secure the material published by having the pages inspected and certified by a notary — before it can be deleted or edited.
- Separate statements of fact from value judgments: only statements of fact can be challenged, and the whole strategy turns on that.
- Prepare demands to authors, platforms, media outlets, review aggregators and marketplaces.
- Bring claims for protection of honour, dignity and business reputation and for retraction and removal of the material.
- Recover damages and compensation for reputational harm.
- Obtain removal of material from search results and under the right to be forgotten.
- Handle unfair competition matters where the reputational attack comes from a competitor.
- Advise where the matter borders on criminal law — defamation and the dissemination of knowingly false information.
Typical situations
- A competitor is writing to your clients to say the company is on the brink of insolvency.
- A run of identical reviews alleging fraud has appeared on a review site.
- A media outlet has published statements of fact that are unsupported, without approaching you for comment.
- A former employee is publishing internal correspondence with his own commentary on how things really work.
- The information was retracted long ago but is still sitting in the search results.
Commercial disputes in Russia are heard by the arbitrazh courts — the state commercial courts, not private arbitration tribunals; disputes involving individuals go to the courts of general jurisdiction.
HOW THE WORK IS ORGANISED
How the work is organised
Pre-action demands
Letters to the author and to the platform. A significant share of publications comes down at this stage — faster and without publicity.
Court
A claim for retraction and removal, recovery of damages and compensation and, where needed, interim relief.
Clearing the trail
Enforcement of the judgment, removal of copies and reprints, work with search results.
RESULTS
Cases from this practice
Civil disputes2021
3instances completed
Claim on a 2010 loan defeated on limitation grounds
Our client was sued on promissory notes dating from 2010 that had been assigned under an assignment agreement. We pleaded limitation, lost at first instance and secured the complete reversal of the judgment on appeal; the cassation court upheld that decision.
Read the case
Debt recovery and commercial litigation2024
RUB 3.06billion in principal debt claimed
Otkrytye Tekhnologii claims against Sibantracit group companies
We act for Otkrytye Tekhnologii LLC in claims against Razrez Kiyzassky LLC and Razrez Vostochny LLC for RUB 3.06 billion and RUB 1.29 billion respectively. The customers stopped advance payments, refused to sign completion certificates and closed access to the sites, while the results of the work are in use. The cases are before the Arbitrazh Court of the Republic of Mari El.
Read the case
Civil disputes2021
RUB 50,000+advance payment recovered
Advance recovered and contract terminated over a defective advertising structure
The customer paid for the manufacture and installation of an advertising structure but received a result with substantial defects. The contract was terminated, the advance and interest recovered, and the judgment upheld on appeal.
Read the case
QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
Can a review be removed if it is untrue?
Statements of fact that do not correspond to reality can be challenged — an allegation of fraud or of non-performance, for example. Value judgments (“I did not like it”) are protected as opinion and there is no point demanding their retraction. We draw that line phrase by phrase at the very first review.
Why is notarial certification of the page needed?
A publication can be edited or deleted at any moment, and then there is nothing left to prove. A notarial inspection record fixes what was published and when, and is accepted by the courts. That is why we ask clients not to contact authors before it is done.
How much can be recovered for reputational harm?
Compensation for non-pecuniary harm is set by the court and in Russian practice is usually modest; the real money lies in proven loss — a contract lost, a bank refusal, a fall in sales. We give an honest assessment of what can be documented before the claim is filed.
What if the publication has been removed but is still in search results?
Search results have to be dealt with separately: a request to delist under the right to be forgotten, approaches to sites that reprinted the material and, where needed, enforcement of the judgment. It is a separate stage and we build it into the plan from the start.
Is it necessary to go to court?
No. A significant share of publications comes down in response to a pre-action demand to the author or the platform — faster and without the publicity that itself amplifies the material.
PRACTICE SERVICES
Individual services
01 / SERVICE
Removing defamatory content
Something has been published about your company or its director that is simply untrue, and it is already showing up in search results.
02 / SERVICE
Defamation claims
Pre-trial demands have not worked, or the situation called for a court decision from the outset: a media publication, a campaign by a competitor, a platform refusing…
03 / SERVICE
Reviews, business listings and ratings
Ratings on maps, directories and marketplaces feed straight into sales and are easy to sink with a burst of near-identical reviews or edits to a listing.
NEXT STEP
Let us look at your situation
The consultation is free when an engagement is signed: we tell you whether the matter has prospects and roughly what running it will cost.