MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. One more fine for breach of antimonopoly laws may be imposed on Google in ten days, department head of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Elena Zaeva told TASS on Thursday.
The US corporation is to cure violations of antimonopoly laws in eight days after the decision of the Court of Appeal in favor of FAS.
"The company should notify the antimonopoly authority about performance of the directive after expiry of that period. Otherwise the Administrative Offenses Code stipulates a fine from 300,000 to 500,000 rubles ($4,600-7,700)," Zaeva said.
The court session took place on August 17 and 8 calendar days therefore will expire today.
The company has not approached FAS so far, press service of the regulator told TASS.
Google did not respond to today’s request of TASS.
The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal rejected Google's appeal in the case against FAS on August 17. FAS will monitor performance of the directive by Google, Zaeva said earlier. Yandex, witness in the case, also expressed support for the court's decision.
On August 16, FAS said they failed to reach an agreement with Google on amicable agreement.
It was reported earlier, that FAS determined the fine in the amount of 438 mln rubles ($6.7 mln) penalty for US Google Corporation.
In March 2016, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) initiated administrative proceedings against Google to determine the amount of fine under part 2 article 14.31 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences. According to the article, in view of the abuse of dominant position on the market of operating systems for mobile devices in Russia, Google as the owner of the Android OS can pay a fine ranging from 1% to 15% of its revenues on the Russian market in 2014.
In January 2016, Head of FAS Igor Artemyev said Russia’s competition law violation penalty for US Google Corporation will most likely amount to 7% of the turnover in 2014 with addressed inflation. According to Artemyev, the fine will most likely be 7% of the annual turnover, subject to various factors and aggravating circumstances: protraction of process, etc.
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.
Google did not agree with FAS decision and appealed to the court. On February 5, 2015, the Court brought Yandex as a third party in the case and decided to hold hearings behind closed doors. On March 14, the Moscow Arbitration Court has dismissed the lawsuit Google filed against Russia’s FAS.