Business disputes with public authorities in Russian commercial courts

The decision to go to a Russian commercial court should be based on three factors: the applicable deadline, evidential readiness and the business objective. It should not be an automatic response to an unsuccessful administrative appeal. Deadline (Article 198 of the Russian Commercial Procedure Code — the three-month court-filing period is governed by Part 4 of Article 198 of the Russian Commercial Procedure Code. If an administrative appeal is filed, paragraph 31 of Russian Supreme Court Plenum Resolution No. 49 of 26 November 2019 requires the time spent on that appeal to be excluded from the court-filing period, including where the complaint is not examined on the merits; it does not create a fresh three-month period. The court file should be prepared with properly executed copies and translations where required, technical materials where relevant, a calculation tied to the disputed payments and a chronology showing the procedural history. The court position should also be reconciled with what was submitted at the administrative stage. The business objective may be recovery of a specific amount, protection of an import model for future shipments or another concrete commercial result. The filing route should be chosen only after the deadline, evidence and relief sought have been checked.

An administrative appeal and a court challenge can be used sequentially where the applicable rules allow it. The key is to maintain one coherent legal and factual position at both stages. An administrative appeal may resolve some disputes without litigation and may clarify the authority's reasoning. It may also be available without a court filing fee. But filing an administrative appeal should not be assumed to restart the judicial deadline: both periods must be calculated under the rules governing the specific dispute. Going directly to court may be appropriate where the issue is principally legal or evidential, urgent interim relief is needed, or an administrative stage would not serve the business objective. Whether a pre-court appeal is mandatory depends on the category of dispute. Tax disputes, for example, are subject to the rules of Article 138 of the Russian Tax Code). For customs disputes, the need for an administrative stage must be checked under the current EAEU and Russian customs rules and the particular type of decision. The choice between an administrative appeal, court proceedings or both should therefore be made from the actual decision, deadline and evidence rather than a standard template.