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For the first time in the judicial practice of Russia, the creditor was allowed to recover from the debtor a penalty of 182% per annum. We are talking about the lawsuit of the Eurasian Bank with the company RK-Invest, which owes it almost 500 million rubles, Lenta.ru reports.
The day before, the Arbitration Court of the West Siberian District rejected the cassation of RK Invest, which challenged the payment of a penalty to the bank in the amount of the loan body for 11 months of default.
It is explained that in 2020, the Eurasian Bank demanded that the company return 471 million rubles, including 201 million of the main debt and the same amount in the form of penalties. This was recorded in the ruling of the arbitration of the Novosibirsk Region and in the decision of the 7th Arbitration Court of Appeal. In the same year, the District Arbitration Court invalidated the arguments of RK-Invest “about the disproportionateness of the penalty to the consequences of the breach of obligation.”
The court ruling said that the recognition of the Eurasian Bank’s claim “conformed to the norms of the law on pledge,” however, experts point out that such claims had previously been denied on the basis of Article 333 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The amount of the penalty, therefore, decreased.
“The law allows for a reduction in the fine if the creditor receives an unreasonable benefit,” the article explains.
Further prospects for debt disputes, taking into account the new decision, were assessed by the author of the study “Corporate Takeovers: Phenomenon, Causes, Prevention” Igor Nefedov. He criticized the arbitration decision in favor of the creditor.
“If the courts will recognize unreasonable penalties as legal, this may lead to the spread of pledge raiding,” the researcher said. Top managers of banks “may seek to profit at the expense of debtors who are in arrears,” and this is “unscrupulous practice,” he concluded.
Source: Rosbalt
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