Language barrier: non-russified car was declared unsafe
The inability to Russify the interface and multimedia system of the car is a significant disadvantage and does not allow safe operation of the car. This is the conclusion reached by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Lawyers and experts are ambivalent about this decision. Details are in the "Izvestia" material.
You tell me in Russian...
A resident of the Moscow region purchased a car from which, according to the purchase agreement, the car dealership promised to Russify the control interface. However, it later became clear that it was impossible to translate the menu into Russian. The buyer was not satisfied with this, and he filed a claim for consumer protection in court. The motorist demanded to collect from the seller the cost of the car, compensation for moral damage, interest on the loan agreement, as well as a fine.
The court of first instance sided with the car owner, noting that when concluding the contract, the seller did not inform the buyer about the goods he had purchased. The car dealership challenged this decision in the appeal and cassation instances, which, on the contrary, concluded that the seller had provided all the necessary information that could influence the plaintiff's decision to buy a car. As a result, the plaintiff filed a complaint with the Supreme Court (Supreme Court of the Russian Federation).
Having considered the complaint, the Judicial Board for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation found it justified. As follows from the message of the press service of the Supreme Court, it was found that the impossibility of Russification of vehicle systems "is a significant disadvantage of the product and leads to a violation of the rights of the plaintiff, who is deprived of the possibility of safe operation of the car." As a result, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the decision of the court of first instance, which supported the buyer of the car.
Legal subtleties
Human rights defenders disagree on the Supreme Court's decision. According to Sergey Smirnov, an auto lawyer, the key in this case was that the seller did not provide the buyer with complete information about the car and its features. This is what the first instance, and subsequently the Supreme Court, recognized as a violation of the law "On Consumer Rights Protection," the lawyer believes.
— Chinese or some other language used in the multimedia system menu does not in itself interfere with the operation of the vehicle. Another thing is that, as the courts have established, the seller did not properly inform the buyer about this feature of the car," Sergei Smirnov believes.
Sergey Radko, a lawyer for the "Freedom of Choice" movement, holds a different point of view. In his opinion, in this case we are talking about the failure of the car dealership to fulfill the terms of the contract, without which the operation of the car becomes more difficult and less safe.
— If the contract stipulated the seller's obligation to Russify the car, but for one reason or another this was not fulfilled, then there is a significant violation of the terms of the contract. When concluding the deal, the buyer expected that the car would have a multimedia menu in Russian. But in fact, the interface of the machine has remained the same. Accordingly, the buyer did not get the opportunity to fully use the goods he purchased," Sergei Radko told "Izvestia".
Security issues
Taking into account the active translation by Chinese automakers of the control of various functions of the car in the multimedia menu, its Russification has a direct impact on safety, said Sergey Radko. Therefore, the Supreme Court made an informed decision, he believes.
— It turns out that in order to operate such a car, the driver needs to learn Chinese or remember which virtual button on the screen turns on a particular function. In addition, without Russification of the system, a motorist may not recognize or understand the meaning of the message with which the car warns him about some kind of malfunction affecting safety," Sergei Radko said.
Valery Soldunov, a member of the Public Board, a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, and chairman of the All-Russian Society of Motorists, agrees with him. In his opinion, by not providing a translation of the interface into Russian, the seller did not give the buyer the opportunity to fully and safely operate the purchased car.
— By itself, the absence of physical buttons in the car that control the main functions forces the driver to be distracted from driving and thus negatively affects safety. This issue has already been raised on the site of the Civic Chamber. ""And the lack of Russian—language designations in the menu makes the motorist even more distracted from the road and take longer to find the right button on the screen," Valery Soldunov told Izvestia.
The Supreme Court's decision on the Russification of "unofficial" cars could have far-reaching consequences, said Anton Shaparin, vice president of the National Automobile Union. Moreover, we are talking not only about models with Chinese characters in the menu, but also about any other machines supplied to us through alternative import channels, he emphasizes.
— All models from China, which are supplied by official importers, have an interface in Russian. Occasionally, of course, there are typos and very funny translation features. But it still allows the driver to understand where and how a particular function of the car is activated, without understanding the hieroglyphs," he noted.
According to Anton Shaparin, in the case of models supplied through alternative channels, Russification is, by and large, the goodwill of the seller. Taking into account the decision made by the Supreme Court, it does not exclude the possibility of an increase in the number of claims and lawsuits by owners of such cars against sellers-legal entities within the framework of the law "On Consumer Rights Protection". At the same time, even the Russification of a number of models from China carried out before the sale does not guarantee that the additionally installed Cyrillic alphabet will remain in the multimedia menu on a permanent basis, says the vice president of NAS.
— The software of modern cars is regularly updated "over the air", without the direct participation of technical center specialists. Therefore, it is highly likely that at some point, with the next software update, the Russian language will simply disappear from the menu," said Anton Shaparin.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
