Russian antitrust waiting for Google to improve by Dec, or add fine

MOSCOW, Nov 7 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has given Google two weeks from the receipt of an order to mend breaches on the mobile applications market and expects its fulfilment until the end of November, or the U.S. company will be fined again, a spokesperson for the authority said Monday.

The spokesperson said that the antimonopoly service has not sent its decision to Google yet, and the U.S. company would receive it by November 14.

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.

The 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 antitrust watchdog 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.

The service and the company are also currently involved in court proceedings on the matter.

(63.5043 rubles – U.S. $1)

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