Yandex may be fined for advertising itself as 'number one in Russia'
Yandex launched a new advertising campaign of its search engine on Wednesday
MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. Russian Internet giant Yandex may be fined for advertising itself as "the number one search engine in Russia," an official with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) told TASS.
"According to FAS, placing this slogan on the Yandex website claiming that it is the number one search engine may point to a violation of anti-monopoly (legislation). The FAS is considering an option to take measures of anti-monopoly pressure," the official said.
Yandex launched a new advertising campaign for its search engine on Wednesday.
"We use it (the slogan - TASS) in all channels, including on the Yandex main page. That is why the slogan under the logo has changed - that is done for the time being only," a spokesperson with the company told TASS.
A company representative also noted that according to figures from Liveinternet, Comscore and others Yandex ranks first in Russia. In June of this year, Yandex’s search share was 51.3% (data from Liveinternet.ru).
The Law on Protection of Competition (Article 14.3) prohibits unfair competition by incorrectly comparing an economic entity and (or) its goods with another economic competitor and (or) its goods, even by using the words "best", "first", " "Number one", "most", "only", other words or designations that create an impression of the superiority of the goods and (or) the business entity, without specifying specific characteristics or comparison parameters having objective confirmation, or in case such statements containing these words are false, inaccurate or distorted.
Yandex is a Russian IT company with 17 offices worldwide. The company has been listed on the NASDAQ since 2011.