Business reputation as a non-property benefit of legal entities: certain aspects of legal regulation

The article examines certain aspects of the legal regulation of business reputation as a non-property benefit of legal entities, the right to inviolability of business reputation as one of the fundamental rights, the provision, implementation and protection of which in wartime is of extremely important importance. In order to eliminate gaps and improve legislation in the field of legal regulation of business reputation, the author proposed a definition of the concept of «business reputation of a legal entity» as an assessment of the activities of a legal entity carried out by other subjects of legal relations, regarding the compliance of such activities with the requirements of the law and business practice. The article identifies the characteristic features of the business reputation of a legal entity. In particular, it is noted that business reputation is a non-property benefit of a legal entity, the right to which is enshrined at the legislative level in Article 94 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, and belongs to all legal entities without exception. The constituent elements of the right to inviolability of business reputation are: the right to inviolability of a trademark, commercial name, the right to proper and reliable information about the activities of a legal entity, the right to fair competition and honest business practices. The author states that the essential components of assessing the activities of a legal entity are: the compliance of its commercial or non-commercial business activities with the requirements of the law or business practice; compliance of the activities of its employees, especially management, with the requirements of professional ethics and competent professional activity and management, which can significantly affect the business reputation of the legal entity as a whole. In this article are analyzed the ways of protecting the right to the inviolability of the business reputation of a legal entity. Regarding the content of the concept of «protection of the right to the inviolability of the business reputation of a legal entity», this should be understood as the regulatory and legal means and institutional mechanisms provided for by law aimed at restoring the damaged business reputation of a legal entity, which may be accompanied by compensation for moral (non-pecuniary) damage.The formation of a legal entity’s business reputation is influenced by factors that are different during different historical eras and years of activity, and it also depends on the significance of a particular factor for the society of that time.