RBC lost in appeal to Rosneft

The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal of Moscow decided to cancel the decision of the first instance. The information from the article and the TV show on the RBC channel was found to be untrue and discrediting. This was reported in a text online broadcast on the website of the publication.

According to the court decision, RBC must publish a refutation within ten days from the date the decision comes into force. A refutation should also be aired on the RBC TV channel. Earlier, the court of first instance decided only to remove the article from the site and publish a refutation; there was no talk of a refutation on the air of the TV channel.

At the same time, the court completely canceled the compensation in the amount of 390 thousand rubles awarded by the Moscow Arbitration Court.

“We welcome the court's decision to completely cancel the compensation,” commented Yevgeny Reznik, RBC's lawyer, on the results of the meeting.

Rosneft will challenge the decision of the Court of Appeal in a lawsuit against RBC, RNS reports , citing a statement from the oil company. The company considers the abolition of the fine for RBC an unacceptable solution in a market economy.

Both representatives of RBC and representatives of Rosneft filed an appeal against the court decision. RBC said that they consider the discrediting nature of the material “Sechin asked the government to protect Rosneft from BP” to be unproven, because of which the Rosneft lawsuit was filed, and there was no reputational damage.

Rosneft stated that, despite the court won, the company is not satisfied with the "impunity for actions that were declared illegal by the court."

Recall that on December 12, 2016, the Moscow Arbitration Court partially satisfied the claim of Rosneft, obliging RBC and journalists Timofey Dzyadko, Maxim Tovkaylo and Lyudmila Podobedova to pay 390 thousand rubles in favor of Rosneft. The court also ruled to remove the article that gave rise to the proceedings and issue a refutation.

The RBC article said that the president of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, allegedly asked the government to limit the rights of the British oil company BP in the upcoming privatization of Rosneft.

Rosneft stated that the information was not true and defames the company's reputation, and demanded to recover compensation from the defendant for damage to reputation in the amount of 3.179 billion rubles.