In its decision No. 8 Cmo 76/2025-78, the High Court in Olomouc addressed a situation in which a company paid advances on profit share to certain shareholders earlier than to another shareholder, without any justification. In one year, the delay was only a few days; in the following year, it exceeded one month.

According to the High Court, this constituted a breach of the principle of equal treatment of shareholders under Section 244 of the Business Corporations Act in conjunction with Section 212(1) of the Civil Code, pursuant to which a company must treat all shareholders equally under the same conditions and must not unjustifiably favour or disadvantage any shareholder.

However, according to the High Court, the damage incurred by the shareholder does not consist of default interest, which would require performance after the due date of the obligation, but rather lost profit, i.e. the benefit the shareholder could have obtained had they received the funds at the same time as the other shareholders.

Author: Lenka Dvořáková