Moscow crt to hear Google suit vs 500,000 rbl antitrust fine Dec 6

MOSCOW, Nov 22 (PRIME) -- The Moscow Arbitration Court will hold a preliminarily hearing of a lawsuit by Google Inc. seeking to void a 500,000 ruble fine for non-compliance with the antimonopoly watchdog’s orders on December 6, according to the court’s documents, seen by PRIME on Tuesday.

The court received the suit on November 18, and the same day it was also addressed by Google Ireland Ltd., which was also fined 500,000 rubles by the antimonopoly watchdog. The lawsuit by Google Ireland Ltd. has not been taken up by the court yet.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service earlier found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position on the local market of preinstalled application stores and forcing Android device manufacturers to install its Google Play in a tie-up with its other programs. The case was opened upon complaint by local Internet giant Yandex.

The service expects the order to be fulfilled by Google by the end of November.

The authority slapped a fine of 438 million rubles on Google, or 9% of the company’s turnover on the local market of mobile applications in 2014, but the date to pay the penalty expired in August.

On November 2, the watchdog fined Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. 500,000 rubles each for a failure to fix the breaches. The company must pay the penalty within 60 days upon expiration of the complaint period.

(64.3580 rubles – U.S. $1)

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