Dmitry Uryakin discussed with DP the specifics of disputes between Russian businesses and foreign counterparties

Dmitry Uryakin - Senior Associate

Peterburgskiy Traktorniy Zavod (Petersburg Tractor Plant), a manufacturer of agricultural and industrial machinery, is involved in a series of disputes with foreign counterparties. In particular, a complaint has been filed by GKN Walterscheid Getriebe GmbH, a British manufacturer of vehicle parts, from which the Commercial Court of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region recovered EUR 78, 000 in favour of Peterburgskiy Traktorniy Zavod (Petersburg Tractor Plant). In addition, Peterburgskiy Traktorniy Zavod (Petersburg Tractor Plant) is recovering a total of about RUB 142 mn from consumers of its products from Moldova, Uzbekistan, the USA, Canada and South Africa.

According to Dmitry Uryakin, Senior Associate, Head of General Business Law Practice at Maxima Legal, the peculiarity of such transnational disputes is the timing of consideration. ‘Given the current restrictions, including on the operation of postal services and services abroad, it is not always possible to notify a foreign participant (or at least to do it from the first time) of the proceedings against it. For this reason, the process may be repeatedly postponed, which will delay the entry into force of the final judgement,’ the expert explained specially for Delovoy Peterburg newspaper.

Dmitry noted that the impact of such disputes on domestic entrepreneurship depends on the size of the company: disputes up to RUB 100 mn will not have a strong impact on large businesses, but for small and medium-sized businesses failure in such litigation can be fatal.

To read the full article (in Russian), please, see Delovoy Peterburg newspapwer`s website >>>