Compensation for infringements of exclusive rights: recent changes in the civil legislation of the Russian Federation

Le résumé fourni par la source

Within the system of civil law remedies for intellectual property, the concept of compensation plays a central role. Unlike traditional damages, compensation allows the rights holder to restore their financial position without having to prove the exact amount of the loss. However, until recently, the lack of a unified compensation calculation mechanism and inconsistency in case law created risks for both copyright holders and bona fide users. Introduction of Article 1252.1, ‘Compensation for infringement of an exclusive right’ into the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is intended to address these issues by establishing both mandatory and discretionary principles for calculating compensation. The purpose of the study is to analyze the legal provision set out in Article 1252.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, to identify the specific features of the methods used to calculate compensation and determine their impact on the scope of application of the law. Materials and methods. The sources used include legislation, regulatory documents, case law and academic publications. General and discipline-specific methods were employed: analysis, generalisation, systems analysis and formal legal analysis. Results. The study analysed the provisions of Article 1252.1 of the Civil Code, which was introduced by Federal Law № 214-FZ and came into force on 4 January 2026. It has been established that regulatory provisions are designed to provide economic justification and to compensate the rights holder for financial losses. This paper examines the mechanism for calculating compensation set out in Article 1252.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation: as a fixed amount (10,000–5,000,000 rubles); as a multiple of the value of the counterfeit physical media; as a multiple of the value of the right to use the result of intellectual activity or a means of individualisation (based on the licence price in comparable circumstances). It is revealed that the rights holder is exempt from proving the exact amount of damages. In addition, conditions have been established for reducing compensation below the minimum threshold (10,000 rubles) where a single act infringes the rights to several works belonging to the same rights holder. Conclusions. Compensation for infringement of an exclusive right is a mechanism for compensating authors and rights holders for losses incurred as a result of unlawful acts by third parties. The introduction of Article 1252.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation has made it possible to establish a standardised framework for calculating compensation, combining the mandatory principles of reasonableness and fairness with the discretionary choice of calculation method. To solve problematic issues, further generalization of law enforcement and judicial practice is necessary. The changes made are an effective way to protect the rights of right holders.

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