An entrepreneur builds a reputation for years, but can lose it in an instant. Personal rights, which include reputation (renown, good name), are intangible assets. However, their violation can be just as painful as a financial loss. We usually become aware of the need to protect reputation, freedom of speech, image, confidentiality of correspondence, or creativity only when these rights are threatened by someone else’s actions, treating their use on a daily basis as something obvious and natural.
Due to the context and casuistics, the protection of personal rights is one of the most difficult parts of civil law. Over the decades, case law has shaped several key principles for resolving disputes over the violation of personal rights. These include, for example, the objectification of the violation (a subjective sense of injustice is not enough), the need to verify the truthfulness of the allegations, or recognizing politicians, celebrities and other public figures as having so-called thick skin, which of course does not mean that these people can be insulted at will.
Although the personal rights of entrepreneurs are also legally protected, reflection is necessary to distinguish the sphere of economic interests from the feelings of ordinary people, which is always emphasized by adjudicating courts. Sometimes it is difficult to draw a precise line between violating the reputation of a company and an act of unfair competition consisting in disseminating harmful information about its legal or financial situation.
Our many years of practice in the field of personal rights protection have allowed us to accumulate a considerable amount of experience. We have appeared before courts of all instances on all sides of these disputes. Some cases were conducted only in the pre-trial phase, ending with a settlement, payment of compensation, apologies, etc.
Examples of cases from our practice: