The problem of interpretation and practice use of the legal norm - article 333 of the Civil Code of Russian Federation that a court has the right to reduce the penalty
This article is dedicated to the problem of interpretation and practice use of the legal norm - article 333 of the Civil Code of Russian Federation which says that a court has the right to reduce the penalty in cases where it is clearly disproportionate to the consequences which had place due to the violation of the obligation. The author proves that it is not the court, but the debtor himself who should demand the reduction of the penalty. Proving the fact of «obvious disproportion» of the penalty to the consequences of the violation of an obligation is the duty of the debtor himself. The article analyzes how to interpret the norm of article 333 of the Civil Code of Russian Federation from the side of judicial practice. The court of appeal on the complaint of the relevant side make a decision about the proportionality of the penalty to the consequences of the violation of the obligation on the evidence which were presented. However, courts of general jurisdiction during the process of considering claims for the recovery of a penalty can sometimes on their own initiative raise the issue of reducing the amount of the penalty in order to timely avoid in future the situation when the debtor will claim a refund received by the creditor unreasonable benefit.