Law on the Ukrainian language: what business has to change?

Not so long ago the law on the Ukrainian language as a single state language came into force. How will it affect business, website owners and personal blogs? Now all entrepreneurs who conduct their business on the territory of Ukraine have to translate their website into Ukrainian.

How to interpret the law from the point of view of an entrepreneur?

The law provides for a certain time for the transition to a new way of doing business, a year and a half long. During this time, all site owners are required to translate the resource into Ukrainian.  They will have to communicate with customers, clients, and event organizers using the same language. Advertising, subscriptions, messages, newsletters and many more is a subject to translation.
The exchange of information should be carried out in full in the Ukrainian language. Therefore, now it is required to fully translate the resource into Ukrainian, so that in the future there will be no problems with updating the translation.
There are two ways to keep to the letter of the law: Translate the resource on your own or ask specialists to help solving this problem.

Radical changes are coming for software developers and owners of their sites

  1. For developers. Programs sold in Ukraine must be in the official language of the country or in the languages of the European Union. Developers will need to pay for translation services to copywriters and do additional work that will cost a lot of time and money.
  2. For developers involved in governmental structures. They will be required to use Ukrainian-language products: SOFTWARE, websites, etc.
  3. For Resellers. All foreign products, software sold in Ukraine, should be used in the Ukrainian language.
  4. For site owners. All facilities designed for local consumers should use the state language. But it is worth noting that no one prevents the site from having a language selection option.
  5. For owners of online stores. All online stores should translate their content, including the description, into Ukrainian, which will require the involvement of copywriters and programmers.

The same conditions apply to the resources of companies in social networks.

What are the liabilities?

The amount of the fine for violation of the law is quite large. The public authority dealing with consumer rights has the right to issue an order for violation of the law together with a fine.

Changes in Internet marketing and SEO promotion

The transition of the site into the Ukrainian language allows you to expand the number of requests for which the Internet resource is ranked. This will increase the number of users who use the Ukrainian language when searching for the site. With proper technical organization, the resource can increase its traffic. It is assumed that since the official entry into force of the law, traffic decreases slightly, but will increase over time.

Multilingualism is implemented by the following principles:

  • The preservation of all languages: You cannot just translate the site.
  • Versions in different languages must be placed at different URLS.

The problem remains with the Ukrainian media, which previously had no versions in Ukrainian or they did not meet the requirements of the new law. The question is as follows: Does the media have to translate all the news reports accumulated over the years? No. The media should publish the material in the state language from the moment the law comes into force. They will be required to create a new version of the site in the Ukrainian language with the setting, the display at the direct entry, gradually filling the content in different languages.
The period of transition for the sites is 18 months.

Legal side

Certain changes will affect the business. Customer service will be conducted in Ukrainian. All events, advertising, mobile applications from now on should be conducted in Ukrainian.

From now on, all contracts, license agreements and public offers for users should be in the state language.
The law provides for a mechanism for prosecution of legal entities if they do not follow the letter of the law. There will be an administrative liability for violations.

The first violation of the law entails a warning and an order to eliminate violations. The second violation will cause a fine of up to 6,8 thousand hryvnias. For the print media, the fine will be 8.5 thousand hryvnias.

It is reported that criminal liability for business does not exist.