A rare case occurred in Moscow, when a sanctioned logistics company demanded that one of the world’s largest international news agencies denied that it had advised other companies on how to circumvent sanctions.
The claim against Reuters News & Media, filed by the Moscow Arbitration Court, was brought by Novelco LLC and its CEO, Grigoriy Grigoriev.
Novelco is a large logistics company with an agency network covering over 2,500 cities in Russia and the CIS countries, and over twenty consolidation points in various countries across Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania.
April 12, 2023, Novelco and Grigoriy Grigoriev were included on the SDN (Special Designated Nationals) list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department. According to the government, Novelco operates in the maritime sector of the Russian economy and its CEO, Grigoriy Grigoriev, publicly advised Russian companies on how to circumvent U.S sanctions against Russia.
After being added to the SDN list, Novelco denied that it is a consulting firm or law firm and has never advised on circumvention of sanctions.
Novelco’s addition to the SDN list was preceded by an investigative report published by Reuters on December 13, 2022. The publication’s data was challenged by Novelco, who filed a lawsuit against Reuters for defamation in arbitration court.
Novelco was unhappy with some data from the material.
In particular, it stated: “In September, Novelco organized a seminar in Moscow for its clients on “how to find alternative ways to deliver goods” to Russia. In a 45-minute presentation entitled “Foreign trade tactics and strategies to compensate for sanctions,” Novelco’s chief executive, Grigory Grigoriev, urged companies to stockpile products and develop diversified pools of suppliers from more than one country.”
In court, Novelco and Reuters provided expert opinions on the journalistic investigation.
The examination commissioned by Novelco showed that “the information in the general context of the publication was negative about Novelco, as it contained a negative assessment of the company’s activities by the authors.”
The examination, commissioned by Reuters, led to different results. As a result of an analysis of the methods and nature of the presentation of information about LLC Novelco and Grigoriy Grigoryev, a linguistic expert did not find any explicit linguistic signs of negative assessment of this company or this person.
As a consequence, the court partly satisfied the claims of Novelco and Grigoriy Grigoryev, recognizing the information published by Reuters as false and damaging their business reputation. The court also ordered Reuters News & Media, Inc. to delete some of the materials within 10 days of the entry into force of the decision, as well as publish a retraction of its investigation data.
It is possible that Novelco will appeal to OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) and the Court of Justice of the EU, requesting the removal of sanctions against them.
