Russian antitrust to mull new Google fines in early 2017

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service will consider new fines for Google for ignoring the authority’s warrant at the beginning of 2017, Deputy Director Anatoly Golomolzin told reporters on Tuesday.

“When we study (the case) under a corresponding procedure, we’ll inform you,” Golomolzin said.

The service said on December 12 that it had opened a case against Google for a second time as it had failed to fulfil the authority’s order to mend violations on the local market on pre-installed application stores on Android devices. The service will draw up a protocol on December 28.

In September 2015, the antimonopoly service found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position 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 authority slapped a 438 million ruble fine, or 9% of Google’s turnover on the local market of mobile applications in 2014, but the deadline 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.

(61.7931 rubles – U.S. $1)

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