What should businesses do to avoid violating the state language law?

On January 16, 2021, the Law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as a State Language" (hereinafter referred to as the Law) will enter into force in Ukraine. It will affect virtually all areas of public life, including business. Use of the state language will become mandatory for all entrepreneurial activity. However, the Law's provisions do not apply to personal communication or religious rites.

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In a global sense, the new legislation dictates significant changes to the rules of the game for representatives of all sectors of the economic sphere, public self-government, and politics.

But the number one priority right now is for those working in the consumer services sector. Here, Ukrainization must be completed within 18 months of the Law's entry into force. Furthermore, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are interested in whether the Law will affectwebsites, email and SMS mailings.

Mandatory use of the Ukrainian language

Due to new legislative requirements, business owners will have to adjust several key aspects of their operations related to:

• document flow;
• ensuring labor relations;
• communication with clients;
• software;
• technical and design documentation;
• advertising;
• presence on the Internet.

Document flow

According to the law, all legal entities registered in Ukraine must conduct correspondence with local government bodies, state authorities, and other organizations and enterprises of any form of ownership (both state and municipal) only in the state language. Any legal matters (including in notarial and legal activities) must be resolved only in Ukrainian.

Ensuring labor relations and communication with the client base

Employment contracts must be written in Ukrainian only. However, the use of a translation is permitted.

Communication with the client base

Verbal communication with the client (whether in person or by telephone) should begin in the official language. Switching to another language is possible at the client's personal request.

Software

Computer programs implemented in Ukraine must have a user interface in Ukrainian and/or English, as well as other official EU languages.  

Preparation of technical and design documentation

Text information on product packaging, as well as information provided to the public for general information, must be in Ukrainian. If there are foreign language versions of the text (for example, product descriptions), the translation into the official language must be identical to the original in both substance and scope.

Advertising 

Only the state language is used for television and radio advertising. Advertising in that language is permitted in media using one of the official languages ​​of the European Union. A full transition to Ukrainian is scheduled within six months.

In addition, any educational, cultural, entertainment and business events (offline and online) must be conducted in the state language.

There will be a fine for violating the Law

Business owners who violate the new rules for interacting with clients face fines. The process will be coordinated by the National Commission on State Language Standards. This new executive body is responsible for monitoring compliance with Ukrainian language standards.

The Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language is responsible for overseeing compliance with the Law. The Commissioner is appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for a five-year term.

The duties of the language ombudsman include:

• consideration of complaints from citizens and legal entities against companies that violate the Law;
• carrying out inspections (based on complaints received, as well as on one’s own initiative);
• drawing up protocols and applying penalties.

If the National Commission receives a complaint about a violation of the "language law," the business entity will receive a warning with recommendations on how to rectify the situation. The company's management will be required to take measures to correct the identified violation.

If the violation is not corrected within 30 days of the complaint being filed, authorized officials will draw up a report and issue a fine of 300 to 400 non-taxable minimum incomes. This equates to between UAH 5,100 and UAH 6,800, respectively, since the fixed amount of one non-taxable minimum income is UAH 17 as of the beginning of 2021.

An important clarification: it is not the employee of the company who violated the Law who will be fined, but his employer company.

According to media reports, due to the pandemic, the National Commission on State Language Standards (50 people) is not yet fully staffed. Therefore, the executive branch currently lacks the necessary personnel to process the complaints that will likely begin arriving immediately after January 16, 2020.

It is also known that, starting July 16 of this year, anyone wishing to find employment in government or local government bodies will be required to confirm their knowledge of the state language.

The law details where the state language should be a priority. And there are virtually no areas that will be unaffected. One way or another, businesses will have to comply, accept the new requirements, and provide employees with opportunities to improve their knowledge of the state language in their professional environment.

Do I need to translate my website and newsletters?

Websites

Almost every business has an online presence. The vast majority of companies providing services to the Ukrainian public have websites and official social media accounts. However, not all of them provide clients with text content in the official language.

Many entrepreneurs will have to seriously address the issue of translating information posted on their companies' websites into Ukrainian. However, the existence of foreign-language versions of web pages will not be considered a violation of the law.

On the one hand, translating website pages into Ukrainian will require a significant budget outlay. But additional pages mean a more prominent presence in search results and visibility for a larger number of queries. This translates into a larger audience and additional traffic. From a website promotion perspective, having multiple language versions is, as we can see, a plus.

It's no secret that the vast majority of websites are Russian-language. The content of any such online resource will need to be translated into Ukrainian, and the site will need to be managed in both languages. How can this process be accelerated and simplified? There are two options: adapt (translate) the texts yourself or hire freelancers or translation agencies.

Incidentally, experts recommend making the text content of the Ukrainian-language version of the website slightly longer, by at least a few hundred characters, than for other language versions. This will ensure compliance with legal requirements.

What are the consequences of the absence of a Ukrainian-language version of the site?

The good news is that business owners have time to adapt to the new conditions. Websites must be fully transitioned to the Ukrainian language version within three years of the Law's entry into force.

What if an individual (business owner) refuses to translate their website into Ukrainian and comply with legal requirements? In that case, they will face financial penalties. The fines stipulated by the law range from 200 to 300 non-taxable minimums (17 UAH), or from 3,400 to 5,100 UAH. However, the fine can only be imposed after the first warning.

Internet marketing 

The sanctions will begin to be applied next summer. The law stipulates that, starting July 16, 2022, the interface of computer programs and online presences (websites, social media pages) must have Ukrainian-language versions.

There are several million websites in Ukraine with their own national top-level domain (.ua). It's logical to assume that the largest, most popular portals will be the first to come to the attention of the inspectors. This means that online resources with average and low search rankings won't be immediately targeted. But should you wait for internet users or competitors to complain that your company is violating the Language Law by neglecting to provide a Ukrainian version of its website?

Email and SMS newsletters are a specific type of electronic commercial communication. The rules for their use are described in the Law "On Electronic Commerce." They are also covered in Article 30 of the "Language Law," which describes the rules of communication in the field of consumer service. It's easy to guess that in the current situation, it's better for newsletter texts to be in Ukrainian. However, by clicking on the received call to action, the user can also be redirected to a Russian-language page of the website, which would not violate the law. At least during the transition period.

However, there are still no clear guidelines regarding the language version of advertising. The law has only indirectly affected the digital sphere. According to experts, advertising text must be in Ukrainian if:

• It is posted on a website in Ukrainian.domain(.ua) or distributed through such a site;
• The target is oriented only towards the Ukrainian target audience;
• the advertiser or distributor of advertising messages is registered in Ukraine. 

In other words, there are currently no strict theoretical requirements for translating all online advertising communications into the state language. However, there are provisions in the laws "On Electronic Commerce," "On Advertising," and "On Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as the State Language," according to which electronic commercial messages distributed on behalf of an e-commerce entity must be in the state language.

What Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses need to know

So, to summarize: with the new law coming into force, all websites and applications will be required to support at least two language versions. Time and money will need to be invested in translating the user interface.

At the same time, it's important to provide customers with a choice of text communication languages. This means marketers will have to track the customer's preferred language when placing an order and subscribing to an email newsletter—and send them emails and messages in that language.

To avoid violating the law, it's worth updating the public offer agreement in advance to clearly define the different types of mailings and the language used for communication with clients.