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Russian regulator finds Google guilty of violating antitrust law

It is noted that "such behavior infringes on the interests of users, and also limits competition in related markets"

MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has found Google guilty of violating the antitrust legislation, the amount of fine for the company will be determined during an administrative investigation, the agency said on Thursday.

"The service has found that the rules related to the formation, suspension, blocking of accounts and the circulation of user content on Youtube are non-transparent, biased and unpredictable. This leads to sudden blocking and deletion of user accounts without warning and justification for actions," the regulator says.

It is noted that "such behavior infringes on the interests of users, and also limits competition in related markets."

The press service of ROCIT (Regional public organization Center for Internet Technologies) told TASS that the regulator’s decision "will significantly affect the practice of Google's interaction with its users and will restore the balance of interests of users and the owner of the service in Russia and abroad."

"It will also warn Google and other owners of digital platforms from using their market power against their users. We are pleased that we initiated such an important investigation for digital markets and, together with experts from Moscow State University and the Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), presented explanations and research results to the FAS that objectively reflect the situation," the press service added.

On April 19, the FAS announced that it had launched a case against Google LLC due to the IT giant’s dominant position on the market of the YouTube video hosting services. The investigation was launched following a complaint from ROCIT saying that Google suddenly blocks, deletes user accounts and content on YouTube video hosting.

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