Legal status of the company's share in own authorized capital under the Law of Ukraine “On limited and additional liability companies”: problems of legal regulation

Abstract

Introduction. Nowadays, the issue of determining the legal status of the company's share in the own authorized capital of LLC and TDV has become quite acute, as evidenced by the adoption on July 28, 2021 by the Commercial Court of Cassation in Case № 904/1112/20, in which the Court established a new approach legal nature of such a phenomenon and expressed his own position on the understanding of the legislation concerning the legal status of the share of LLC and TDV in its own authorized capital. Given that a limited liability company is the most popular type of legal entity that is chosen to conduct business in Ukraine, the analysis of this issue is relevant. Some scientific value for the development of the transfer of the participant's share are the works of individual authors devoted to the study of the legal nature of the share in the authorized capital but the problems arising around the legal status of the company. in their own authorized capital in these works were only mentioned along with others, but did not receive a detailed separate study. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the normative regulation of the legal status of the company's share in the own authorized capital of LLCs and ALCs, identification of shortcomings in their legal regulation and implementation, as well as the search for ways to eliminate them. Results. One of the most relevant decisions concerning the subject of this article is the Judgment of the Commercial Court of Cassation in case № 904/1112/20 of July 28, 2021. The court in this case found that the votes attributable to the share belonging to the company itself are not taken into account when determining the results of voting at the general meeting of participants on any issues. However, Ukrainian legislation does not contain any direct norms that would prohibit the exercise of the right to manage a company in relation to itself on the basis of a share in its own authorized capital. That is why the company cannot be a participant in relation to itself, although they seem logical, but do not have sufficient regulatory support, and therefore do not allow to be firmly convinced of their compliance with the law. In view of this, it can be stated that there is a significant gap in the national legislation on this issue, which, in our opinion, the Court failed to “fill” with this decision in the case. Conclusion. In the Ukrainian legislation at the level of the Law of Ukraine “On Limited and Additional Liability Companies” Article 25 defines the possibility for a company to acquire a share in its own authorized capital. However, the regulation of the legal status of such a share cannot be called sufficient, due to which in practice there are certain problems in the implementation of the provisions of the legislation concerning the share of the company in its own authorized capital. The solution of these legal problems is necessary to ensure the highest quality and clarity of the law, as well as to form case law with common approaches to understanding a single rule.