How many fines were issued for violation of the language legislation

A fine of up to UAH 6,800 is threatened only by those who repeatedly violate the requirements of the law within a year. The Secretariat of the Ombudsman reported Focusthat 27 legal entities received warnings in 2021.

–

During 2021, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin did not impose a single fine on business entities (enterprises, organizations, sole proprietorship, etc., engaged in trade and public services) for violating language laws… This was reported in the Secretariat of the Language Ombudsman in response to a relevant request. Focus.

The representative office of Tarase Kreminya stressed that according to Article 57 of the Law of Ukraine “On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language” fines are imposed only on those business entities that have repeatedly violated the requirement for customer service in Ukrainian during the year… They can be fined for this in the amount of 300 to 400 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (from 5,100 to 6,800 UAH).

If the Ombudsman fixes such a violation during the year for the first time, he or his representative draws up an act and issues a warning. In 2021, similar warnings were made to 27 business entities.

The norms of article 188-52 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine (KUoAP), providing for the use of the authorized person for the protection of the state language fines against individuals, print media, government bodies, etc., come into force on July 16, 2022… The size of these sanctions ranges from 200 to 700 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (from UAH 3,400 to 11,900).

Also in the representative office of Kreminya they said that during the past year they received 3,574 messages from citizens, including appeals and complaints that relate to the observance of language legislation by various organizations, institutions and individuals. Of them:

• 1,044 related to the activities of online stores;
• 858 – service industries;
• 393 – outdoor advertising;
• 262 – public authorities;
• 171 – television and radio broadcasting;
• 157 – areas of education and science;
• 57 – health care;
• 53 – the sphere of transport;
• 45 – spheres of culture
• 41 – law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies and special state agencies with law enforcement functions;
• 32 — spheres of physical culture and sports;
• 10 – labor relations;
• 8 – book publishing and print media.

Also, during the year, the representative office of the ombudsman for the protection of the state language was contacted 75 times for clarifications regarding certain legislative norms and 375 times “on other issues.”

–

Note that the Secretariat of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language reported Focus, What’s on their maintenance during 2021 from the budget was spent 20.4 million UAH… Most of these funds went to the salaries of officials and the purchase of equipment.

Also Focus reported that Taras Kremin as a language ombudsman for 2021 officially earned almost a million hryvnia.

– .