AWARDING COSTS IN COURT PROCEEDINGS FOR APPEALING REFUSALS OF REQUESTED ENTRIES IN THE COMMERCIAL REGISTER

Abstract

The ultimate goal of the commercial registration is to serve the interests of private individuals and entities, so that they could take full advantage of the legal effects of the commercial register entries. To achieve this aim, sufficient control mechanisms should be in place to ensure that registry official rulings meet all legal requirements. The law therefore establishes a court procedure for contesting such refusals by the applicants. This procedure, although focused at the appealed refusal, calls for the protection of a broader range of civil rights, among which the compensation of the procedural costs incurred as a result of the faulty refusal and its contesting. The present paper explores the obstacles hindering the rightful course of the registry refusal litigation proceedings, with focus on awarding the appellant’s expenses within the said court procedure. Despite the fact that these hindrances followed the legal amendments to the Law on the Commercial Register at the end of 2020, the shortcomings in the legal practice are not the result of imperfect lawmaking, but of the way the law is interpreted in recent case-law. The latter is analysed in detail further in this report, in order to identify the key misinterpretations which led to malpractice. This report also suggests ways forward to address the subject and to find solutions to the mentioned shortcomings.

Keywords

• commercial registration
• refusal
• appeal costs obstacles
• case-law