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Russia's antimonopoly watchdog, Google make settlement agreement

Google agreed to make one-off payment of the $7.8 mln fine and two fines of $8,900

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The court approved the settlement agreement between the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and Google in the Android case. The agreement was made for 6 years and 9 months, Deputy Head of FAS Alexei Dotsenko said at a press conference on Monday.

"The term of the agreement is 6 years and 9 months," the official said.

The US Google Corporation will pay all fines imposed by the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and will comply with the agency’s order, deputy department head of FAS Larisa Vovkivskaya said.

Google agreed to make one-off payment of the 438 mln rubles ($7.8 mln) fine and two fines of 500,000 rubles ($8,900) each imposed on affiliates of the US corporation - Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. All the fines are to be paid within two months according to the law but FAS believes it will take place quicker. 

 All the fines are to be paid within two months according to the law but FAS believes it will take place quicker.

The settlement provides that Google waives exclusivity of its applications on devices with Android OS in Russia for its effective term. Users of Android-based smartphones will see the "selection window" with several options of the search engine after update of the browser and the search widget.

On September 14, 2015 the Federal Antimonopoly Service recognized Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. as having 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.

Yandex

Google reported that, in addition to an amicable agreement with Russia’s anti-trust regulator, it entered into a commercial agreement with the Yandex company.

"We are pleased to announce that today we have concluded a commercial agreement with Yandex and an amicable agreement with the FAS, which meet the interests of all parties," Google said in a statement.

"The commercial agreement with Yandex, which was approved by the FAS, provides additional opportunities for the promotion of the Yandex search service in the Chrome browser, thus ending the dispute regarding the distribution of Google services on Android-devices," Google explains.

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