In an April ruling, the Tenth Court of Appeals for Arbitration affirmed a 176.6 million ruble award to Mediamaker over a TV advertising dispute with Ikea Dom LLC.
The decision, reported by the Vedomosti newspaper citing the court file, confirms that Ikea Dom LLC refused to honor an annual TV advertising contract with the agency, part of Group4Media, prompting the suit.
During the appeal, Ikea Dom LLC argued that the compensation for canceling the contract had been miscalculated. The appellate panel found these arguments unpersuasive. This case stands as Ikea’s largest litigation to date and remains singular in its outcome, with the court not reducing the plaintiff’s damages in this instance.
The Moscow Region Arbitration Court issued the favorable ruling for Mediamaker on February 15 of the current year. A third party in the dispute was the National Advertising Association, known to oversee the sale of more than 90 percent of television advertising in Russia.
According to the decision, in December 2021 Mediamaker entered into an agreement with the NRA on behalf of Ikea Dom LLC to place advertisements on Russian television in 2022. On June 20, 2022, Ikea Dom LLC notified Mediamaker of a unilateral termination of the annual contract.
The arbitration court found that Ikea did not reimburse Mediamaker for costs incurred due to canceling the TV campaign and did not pay the agency fee specified in the contract.
The court ordered Ikea to pay Mediamaker 175.9 million rubles. In addition, the company was held liable for NRA penalties, 533,128 rubles for late agency payments, and 200,000 rubles in state duties.
Following the events, Ikea suspended store operations in Russia in March 2022, and by June that network had been shuttered.
Contextual note: this case illustrates the friction between multinational branding efforts and domestic regulatory environments. It also underscores the leverage that advertising trade organizations can hold in coordinating large-scale campaigns across national markets, even when a corporate entity initiates unilateral contract terminations. The dispute reflects broader questions about contractual risk, cost recovery, and the responsibilities attached to regional advertising allocations. Citations: Vedomosti report on the court file; Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region decision; NRA involvement as a major ad sales authority in Russia.