All news

Kremlin advisor calls for fining Google every day

Earlier on Thursday, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Agency (FAS) determined the fine in the amount of 438 mln rubles ($6.7 mln) penalty for US Google Corporation

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. Russian Presidential adviser on Internet development German Klimenko believes that it would be more effective to fine Google not once, but every day until the violation is eliminated, he told TASS on Thursday.

"From the standpoint of the international practice, I think daily fines until the violation is eliminated, like in the United States, would have been a more effective measure," he said. "Our goal is not to earn money, but to ensure that the violation has been corrected," Klimenko added.

He said that the US has a method - when judge simply set daily fines for large Internet companies and copyright holders until the violations are removed.

"This is a small sum for Google, it incurs greater expenses all around the world - patent wars for example. A sum less than $10 mln is completely insignificant for Google," Klimenko said.

Earlier on Thursday, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Agency (FAS) determined the fine in the amount of 438 mln rubles ($6.7 mln) penalty for US Google Corporation. "The fine for breach of antimonopoly laws amounted to 438 mln rubles ($6.7 mln) for Google. We hope the company will perform our decision and pay the fine shortly," Deputy Head of FAS Alexei Dotsenko said.

Consultations on a settlement agreement with Google continue despite the announced amount of the fine, press service of FAS told TASS.

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.

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.