Russian Court Imposes Additional $47 Million Penalty on Google
On Tuesday, Russia’s anti-monopoly watchdog announced that Alphabet’s Google has been fined 4 billion roubles ($47 million) by a Russian court. This penalty was imposed as Google failed to pay a previous fine related to accusations of abusing its dominant position in the video hosting market.
The decision is the latest multimillion-dollar fine in Moscow’s increasingly assertive campaign against foreign tech companies.
Google was fined 2 billion rubles in February 2022. At the time, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said Google’s YouTube had a “non-transparent, biased and unpredictable” approach to “freezing and blocking user accounts and content”, TASS news. the agency announced.
Google eventually appealed the decision. The US company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Tuesday.
The FAS said the previous fine it imposed on Google had been doubled due to non-payment.
“In addition, the company must pay more than 4 billion rubles to the budget of the Russian Federation,” FAS stated.
YouTube, which has blocked Russian state-funded media globally, is under heavy pressure from Russian state bodies and politicians, but Moscow has not blocked it, a move against the likes of Twitter and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
Google stopped selling online advertising in Russia in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has kept some free services available. Its Russian subsidiary officially filed for bankruptcy after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay staff and vendors.
Google must pay the fine within 60 days, TASS reports.
(1 dollar = 85,0250 rubles)
