Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court rejected the claim of IKEA MOS (Trade & Real Estate): the company was trying to get ownership rights over a number of advertising billboards in Yekaterinburg.

Yekaterinburg Municipal Council and Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastral Records and Cartography were involved in the case as defendants.

IKEA MOS (Trade & Real Estate) demanded that the right of ownership be granted to the company regarding a 45-meter billboard with the area of 35.8 sq m and a 40-meter billboard with the area of 16.7 sq m. The plaintiff referred to Article 222 of Russia’s Civil Code.

According to IKEA, the company owns a land allotment with the area of 238,358.84 sq m located at 129 Otradnaya St in Yekaterinburg; this information has already been confirmed as accurate. The plaintiff used the allotment to put up a shopping center, including the two contested billboards, which was done on the basis of a construction permit and in accordance with the project documentation. The billboards were referred to in the said permit as ‘a set of auxiliary technical structures’ and were commissioned alongside with the building.

The commissioning permit was issued for the shopping center on February 26, 2007, but the billboards in question were not mentioned there.

The plaintiff made numerous attempts to legitimize the structures; the billboards underwent technical inventory procedures and were assigned asset identification numbers, but there was no opportunity for the company to have the billboards officially registered and get the ownership rights over them out of court.

The city council, in its turn, requested that IKEA’s claim be rejected since the contested billboards should be classed as elements of public amenities and not as real estate.

The court ruled in favor of Yekaterinburg Municipal Council.