A court in Karaganda has ordered a defendant to pay compensation for using a woman's photograph without her consent. The incident occurred on Instagram, where the image was posted with an offensive caption. The court partially upheld the claim, awarding 100,000 tenge in moral damages, reports infohub.kz.
According to the official Telegram channel of the courts of the Karaganda region, Court No. 2 of the Kazybekbi district of Karaganda considered a civil case concerning the protection of the right to one's image, removal of the publication from the social network, prohibition of further use of the photo, and compensation for moral damages.
The court established that on February 20, 2026, the plaintiff discovered a post on the defendant's Instagram page featuring her image, accompanied by the caption "[surname] 500,000 tenge." Since the photo was posted without the woman's consent, she sent the defendant a pre-trial claim demanding removal of the post and compensation for moral damages in the amount of 250,000 tenge.
Subsequently, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit. The defendant did not admit the claim, stating that after receiving the claim, the post was removed on March 30, 2026. In resolving the dispute, the court referred to Article 145 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which enshrines a citizen's right to their own image.
The court noted that the use of a citizen's image without consent is permitted only in cases provided by law, for example, when the person participates in public events or their image is related to official or public activities. However, in this case, the disputed photo was posted on the defendant's public page without the plaintiff's consent and remained publicly accessible for a long time. The court found no evidence of legal grounds for using the image without consent.
The right to one's own image is a personal non-property right of a citizen. Its violation entails legal remedies, including compensation for moral damages. The court partially granted the claim: it prohibited the defendant from using the plaintiff's image without her consent and ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff 100,000 tenge in moral damages, as well as court costs.
The judicial panel for civil cases of the Karaganda Regional Court agreed with the conclusions of the court of first instance and left the decision unchanged, dismissing the appeal.