The professional magazine "Economy and Life" published a commentary by Nikita Rozhentsov, advocate, counselor of criminal law and general practice of Alliance Legal CG.
"Penalty on the threshold of change: a bill on limiting the court's authority to reduce the amount of a legal penalty has been introduced in the State Duma".
It is proposed to make amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, limiting the powers of the court to reduce the amount of the legal penalty provided for by Article 332 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Currently, the law allows for two types of contractual penalty: legal and contractual (Art. 330 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). With regard to the legal penalty (Article 332 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), the current regulation is based on the fact that the right to claim it takes place regardless of whether the obligation to pay it is stipulated by the parties' agreement. In addition, the statutory penalty may be increased by agreement of the parties if the law does not prohibit it.
Article 332 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is proposed to be supplemented with a clause according to which the court may reduce the amount of a statutory penalty only if such reduction is permitted by the law which determines such penalty. The proposed innovation seems ambiguous and will require additional elaboration taking into account the current judicial practice.
Full version of the article on the website of the "Economy and Life" publication
