Cancellation of Licenses and Other Special Permits in the Field of Business Activities as Administrative Enforcement Measures: the Essence, Grounds and Problems of Application
Authors:   Second Commercial Court of Appeal (Kirov), G. G. Ivshina 
Published: October 2021

The article deals with topical issues of understanding the essence, grounds and conditions for applying to legal entities-commercial organizations, and individual entrepreneurs such measures of administrative and legal influence as the cancellation of licenses or other special permits granted to them to carry out certain types of business activities or to perform certain actions in the field of entrepreneurship. In administrative law science, there are different approaches to determining the substance of the administrative legal measure under consideration and the purposes of its application. Cancellation of licenses and other special permits is qualified in the literature as a measure of administrative warning, as an administrative and preventive measure, as a preventive and restorative measure, and even as a measure of administrative responsibility. The rules governing the granting and cancellation of licenses and other special permits are not systematized, they are contained in a variety of Federal laws and laws of the subjects of the Russian Federation that establish various grounds for termination of the relevant licenses and permits, including those that are not related to the Commission of any offenses. In this regard, there is a need to conduct a study of the legal nature, grounds and purposes for revoking licenses and other special permits granted to business entities. The purpose of the research is to identify problems of theoretical understanding, regulatory regulation and practical application by Executive authorities, local government bodies and courts of this administrative and legal measure and develop possible approaches to their solution, including by making the necessary changes and additions to the current licensing and permitting legislation. Based on this goal, the research aims to study the relevant Federal laws, scientific and educational literature, analysis and synthesis of materials of judicial practice in cases of revocation of licenses and other special permits issued to commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs. During the preparation of the work, methods of formal legal analysis and synthesis of normative material and judicial practice were used. As a result of the research the author formulated the following main conclusions: 1) depending on the legally established grounds and purposes for applying the cancellation (termination) of a license or other special permit issued to a legal entity or individual entrepreneur, this measure may be referred to as administrative measures or administrative-legal confirmation of the loss by the license holder of the special right granted to him in the field of business; 2) cancellation of a license or other special permission in the sphere of business activity as a measure of administrative restraint is an authoritative influence of a competent administrative and public body or arbitration court on a legal entity or individual entrepreneur who has been granted a license or other special permission to carry out certain types of business activity or to perform certain actions in the field of business, consisting in making a decision on cancellation (cancellation, invalidation) of the specified licenses or permits in connection with violations committed by their holders of mandatory, including license, requirements aimed at forcibly terminating the relevant illegal activities or actions; 3) a license or other special permit may be revoked (revoked, invalidated) only if the following conditions are met: 1) the holder of a license or other special permit has committed gross (significant) violations of mandatory (license) requirements; 2) prior to the decision to revoke (revoke, invalidate) a license or other special permit, the following administrative enforcement measures were consistently applied to their holder: issuing an order to stop the violations committed and eliminate their harmful consequences; suspending the license (permit) in case of non-fulfillment of the issued order with the issuance of a second order that was not executed within the established period; 4) in order to ensure uniform legal regulation of the granting and termination (cancellation) of licenses and other special permits for certain types of business activities or for performing certain actions in the field of entrepreneurship, it is necessary to prepare and adopt the Federal law «On the basis of licensing and permitting activities in the Russian Federation», which, among other things, must exhaustively define the cases, grounds and procedure for canceling these licenses and permits. Тhe procedure for consideration by arbitration courts of cases on revocation of licenses and other special permits should be set out in a separate Chapter of the Arbitration procedure code of the Russian Federation.