Posting negative comments in internet just got risky, particularly for the websites owners. On May 21, the Dniprovskiy district court in Kyiv ruled that Anton Pankov, who wrote critical posts about D.I.A. Development construction company, should pay Hr 14 million to the developer.
This court
decision is dangerous for Ukraine’s Internet community and threatens freedom of
expression in the only media space that has so far remained largely free and
unregulated in Ukraine.
The
defendant Pankov is a resident of the Riviera Riverside luxurious apartment
complex built by D.I.A. Development company on the Dnipro’s left bank in Kyiv.
He was one of several residents that set up a website criticizing the living
conditions at the development.
They
discovered the first two flat owners in the building organized an association
of co-owners (OSBB) responsible for house maintenance and charged four times
higher the market average for their services.
This led
the new arrivals to create a specialized website in early 2012, registered
under Pankov’s name.
Activists
chose the web address stsophia.com.ua, after the name of the company that sold
flats in the apartment complex. Residents also posted the Riviera Riverside
logo on the home page. These two circumstances became the basis for filing the
claim in court.
D.I.A.
Development explained in its claim that their company registered a Riviera
Riverside trademark in 2007. The company argued residents used the logo without
permission and posted untruthful information on their website, which “ruined
the positive image of the company.”
According
to D.I.A. Development , the company suffered significant losses as a result of
information posted on the website, which amounted to Hr 14.1 million.
Surprisingly, the judge agreed with the plaintiff and found Pankov guilty.
Saint
Sophia Homes also sued Pankov for using their name in the website address,
demanding Hr 800,000 for this violation. The trial is still ongoing.
The court’s
ruling is extremely controversial for several reasons. One is that the law On
Protection of Rights to Trademarks for Goods and Services actually allows the
use of trademarks for non-commerical purposes, lawyers say.
Pankov’s
site had no advertising on it, and its bloggers conducted no businesses
activity, says Bogdan Borovyk a partner at Beiten Burkhardt law firm. The
notion that posts on the website affected sales dynamics is also hard to
digest, he says.
D.I.A.
Development’s representative Alla Ivchenko told LigaBusinessInform that the
company asked website owners not to use their logo. After several unsuccessful
attempts D.I.A. decided to sue the website. Ivchenko did not want to provide
more details until the court decision comes into force. The defendant is
planning to appeal the decision this week.
However,
Riviera Riverside logos were deleted from the site before the end of the trial,
and now the home page only features a picture of the buildings.
Pankov’s lawyer Oleksandr Peremezhko
says a post on high maintenance costs finally pushed D.I.A. Development to take
legal action. He insists “only true information was published on the website”
about the service company OSBB, which also claims was set up in violation of
legal procedures.
“In the legal sense, this case
confused two different concepts, violation of copyright and placement of
untruthful information that damaged (a firm’s) business reputation,” he
explains.
According to Peremezhko, the court’s decision was also based on expertise
regarding the website’s content provided solely by D.I.A. Development. The defense’s legal expertise showed
no violation of copyright law and was the basis of a counterclaim dismissed by
the same Dniporovskiy district court.
This is not the first time in
Ukraine when bloggers are targeted for critical online comments. In September
2012 three activists from Odessa region were obliged to pay Hr 15,000 to
MacKenley development company, but later successfully appealed the decision. In
2011 police also questioned editors of popular websites Ukrayinska Pravda and
Korrespondent because of negative comments posted by users of their websites
about Party of Regions lawmaker Inna Bogoslovska.
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Kapliuk
can be reached at [email protected] and Kyiv Post intern Artem Babak at [email protected].
