McDonald’s speaks Ukrainian but still faces controversial language dispute situation: a suitable reminder and key takeaways for brand owners

McDonald’s speaks Ukrainian but still faces controversial language dispute situation: a suitable reminder and key takeaways for brand owners

Brand care and brand protection are not only about trademark registration and IP rights enforcement. It is also about compliance where language issue is among the issues which brand owner should carefully handle, especially in multi-language countries.

New Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as State Language” No. 2704-VIII (New Language Law) has entered into force on 16 July 2019 in spite of all pressure, claims, and objections. And it still remains a highly debatable piece of legislation. After almost one year from the New Language Law effective day, it still in its infancy with pending transitional periods for a number of areas, including the client service. The McDonald’s case we discuss in this post serves as a suitable reminder that once the language dispute situation is inevitable, the brand owner should carefully navigate through all the uncertainties and peculiarities of the local language law requirements to protect the brand (or brands) not only from negative publicity but also from other negative implications.

What happened?

According to McDonald’s funs, the company has never had menus in Russian (though, frankly, I personally have never paid attention to the language issue). Still, at the time it is a high demand for all ‘made in Ukraine’ due to political situation and state of relations between Ukraine and Russia, it didn’t prevent the uproar concerning the absence of the Russian language in the digital menu boards of the McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine. On 14 June, blogger Anatoly Shariy posted on Telegram that digital menu boards of McDonald’s in Ukraine suggest ordering Mc food in Ukrainian or English only. According to him, the absence of the menu in Russian discriminates against citizens and residents speaking Russian. As it usually the case with social media, users have split down the middle on the issue. One group got angry over the Russian language absence suggesting to boycott the McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine, while another group praised the step of McDonald’s to leave Ukrainian and English the only two languages available for the digital menu boards suggesting to support McDonald’s, especially with more orders. Opposers also claimed that, when it comes to Russia, McDonald’s digital menu boards have five languages: English, Russian, Chinese, Uzbek, and Tadzhik. McDonald’s Ukraine officially responded that due to the local law requirements, the default language of the company’s documents, advertising, social media communication, website, and information for consumers is Ukrainian. According to a spokesperson for McDonald’s, Ukrainian is also a default language for servicing customers, but Mc employees are ready to switch to Russian if the customer would ask them to switch.

How regulated?

It seems that McDonald’s Ukraine mainly relied on Article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution which stipulates that Ukrainian shall be state language in Ukraine. According to Transitional Provisions of the New Languages Law, the relevant provisions concerning servicing consumers, labeling, and packaging are not yet in force and are expected to enter into force on 16 January 2021. However, those provisions have apparently helped Mc to construe Articles 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution in the way to put out a fire.

To summarize, the following requirements for servicing consumers, labeling, and packaging are expected to enter into force on 16 January 2021:

  • consumers in Ukraine shall be serviced in Ukrainian unless the consumer requests service personally in another language (paras. 1 and 3 of Article 30).
  • companies, institutions, and organizations of all types of ownership, individuals registered as private entrepreneurs in Ukraine, and other business entities that service consumers and provide information about goods and/or services, including through online stores and online catalogs, must be in Ukrainian. Such information can be dubbed into other languages (para. 2 of Article 30).
  • producers (contractors, sellers) shall provide information about products, services, and work in Ukrainian. This information may also be dubbed into any other language (paras. 5 and 6 of Article 30). The foregoing information in Ukrainian must be provided to consumers with the procedure, in a manner and volume as set forth in the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Customers Rights” (para. 7 of Article 30). In case information about products and/or services is provided to consumers in several languages, the volume and contents of the information in Ukrainian shall not be less informative than in other languages (para. 8 of Article 30).

Moreover, as far as various digital menu boards, apps, websites, etc are concerned, brand owners should also check if Article 27 of the New Language Law is applicable to their language matters. Article 27 regulates the use of both Ukrainian and other languages for user interfaces of apps, websites, and software, including pre-installed software (as may be the case with digital menu boards of Mc). Notably, not all provisions of Article 27 are in effect as of the New Language Law effective date (i.e. as of 16 July 2019). For example, pre-installed soft language requirements are expected to enter into force following three years upon entering the New Language Law into force, i.e. user interface of pre-installed software should be translated into Ukrainian by 16 July 2022.

Speaking Ukrainian is good but may not always be enough

Russian is not the only language that might give rise to customers’ complaints in Ukraine. The availability of online resources / digital services / technology-driven services in the languages of sizeable minorities in Ukraine (e.g. Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish minorities) may also be important because the Ukrainian Constitution guarantees free evolution, use, and protection of Russian and other languages of minorities (para. 3 of Article 10). A multi-language pragmatic approach can be a more preferable business approach, though Ukrainian should indeed stay a default language.

In any case, the brand owner should be ready to effectively handle language dispute situations in Ukraine. Negative public feedback reasoned by the mere fact of language-related dispute/claim (especially when it comes to social media) may potentially damage the company’s reputation even if any such dispute/claim would be meritless. Damaging the brand owner’s reputation may sometimes be the only reason for any such dispute/claim.

 

For further information, please contact Oleg Klymchuk.

Information contained in this overview is for general information purposes only, does not constitute legal or other professional advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific professional advice tailored to particular circumstances.