Point of law: whether the duty to compensate for litigation expenses may be placed upon a person who formally did not participate in the case but filed an appeal against the decision of the court (since the decision affected his the rights and duties) and thus in fact acted as a person participating in the case?

Ratio decidendi: the Presidium gave an affirmative answer to the question by saying that the use of procedural rights implies the assumption of corresponding procedural duties, including the duty to compensate for litigation expenses; otherwise the constitutional principle of the equality before the law and the court might have been violated and the practice of unjustified appeals by third persons without their bearing the risk of unfavourable consequences might be encouraged. Besides, the Presidium has referred to Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights, having pointed out that it is inadmissible to infringe upon the right to property of the person who incurred expenses in the court.

Practical consequences: the Judgment says that prior court decisions in analogous cases if inconsistent with this interpretation may be reversed in the procedure and within the limits envisaged by Art 311 of the Commercial Procedure Code.