MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is interested in signing a settlement agreement with Google, deputy head of the regulator Andre Tsarikovsky told reporters.
"These questions (about the possibility of a settlement agreement) are being discussed. All the parties may be willing to come to an amicable agreement. All the parties are interested in withdrawing from the dispute," he said.
According to Tsarikovsky, the regulator has no intention to ruin the company.
"We are not interested in ruining the company and removing it from the market, but nevertheless it is necessary to remove the effects of unfair competition," he said.
Tsarikovsky refused to answer by what amount sum the penalty can be reduced. Earlier it was reported that the amount of the fine may amount to 7% of the turnover of Google in Russia in 2014.
"No comment," - said he said.
"We approve the practice of the European Commission (in such cases -TASS), as they quite often agree to sign settlement agreements in terms of reduction of fines," Tsarikovsky said.
Earlier this month the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal postponed the trial of the FAS vs Google case until June 30.
On September 14, 2015, the Federal Antimonopoly Service ruled that Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. had breached the competition protection law under the complaint of the Russian Internet company Yandex. According to the regulator, Google obliged manufacturers of Android OS-based devices to pre-install its applications together with Android platform. FAS said that Google’s policy restricted installation of applications by other developers. Google did not agree with the ruling and appealed to the court.