Ukraine is considering banning the use of Russian on product labelling: what will change for businesses
This is set out in the draft legislation.
Key changes for businesses
The draft bill provides for amendments to the Law ‘On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language’, as well as the laws ‘On Consumer Information on Food Products’ and ‘On the Safety and Hygiene of Animal Feed’. The main changes are as follows:
- Priority of the state language: Manufacturers, service providers and sellers, regardless of their form of ownership, are obliged to provide information about products, goods, works or services in the Ukrainian language.
- Prohibition on the use of the aggressor’s language: Although current legislation permits information to be provided in other languages, the initiative imposes a clear restriction. Translation of information into other foreign languages is permitted; however, it is strictly forbidden to use for this purpose the language of a state that the Verkhovna Rada has recognised as an aggressor state (occupying state).
- Regulations in the food and agricultural sectors: Similar restrictions are being introduced for the labelling of food products and animal feed. Market operators will be able to display a translation alongside the Ukrainian text only provided that it is not in the language of the aggressor state.
Why this is important
In the explanatory note to the document, the authors point out that the current version of the legislation contains no exceptions regarding the languages in which information may be duplicated. In the context of a full-scale war, language policy has become part of national security.
The drafters of the bill emphasise that the use of the aggressor state’s language in the commercial sphere creates its ‘symbolic presence’ in Ukraine’s economic and information space.
The aim of the bill is to minimise such influence and strengthen the legal safeguards for the functioning of the Ukrainian language.
If the law is passed, businesses using multilingual labelling or advertising materials will be required to review their products and information media to ensure they comply with the new requirements. The law comes into force the day after its official publication.
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