Russian court to hear Google’s cassation appeal Thursday

MOSCOW, Dec 1 (PRIME) -- The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District will consider on Thursday a cassation appeal of Google against decisions of two lower courts, which had upheld a position of the antimonopoly service to find the U.S. company guilty of abusing its dominance on the local mobile application market.

Google went to court to void the service’s decision and warrant issued to the company to mend the breaches, but the Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the suit in March, and a court of appeals confirmed the lower court’s decision in August, and the move came in force.

A Google spokesperson said earlier that the Android platform stimulates competition and reduction of prices. It also gives lots of opportunities to users, developers and smartphone producers.

Google intends to prove to the cassation court that Android helps to develop a successful and sustainable ecosystem, the spokesperson said then.

The antimonopoly service wants Google to fix violations on the market of preinstalled application stores, which includes forcing smartphone manufacturers to preinstall Google Play in a tie-up with the company’s other applications. The authority brought the company to administrative responsibility and imposed a 438 million ruble fine. Google litigated the fine, but the court has not considered it yet.

The service had been waiting until Monday for Google to report on mending its violations and filed on Tuesday a lawsuit to court to oblige Google to respect its warrant.

The antitrust watchdog also prosecuted Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. in November for a failure to mend the breaches and fined each with 500,000 rubles. Google contested these penalties as well. On Monday, Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. filed suits to court against the antimonopoly service.

Yandex, which initiated the antimonopoly proceedings, said Google does not actually deny its unfair methods and continues sidestepping the warrant. “No wonder in this context that the Federal Antimonopoly Service is forced to look for other means to make Google stop misbehaving,” Yandex’s press secretary Asya Melkumova told PRIME late Wednesday.

“In its public position, Google usually declares a freedom of choice, but it’s a myth: users have no alternative on any Android device, as Google is on the front page, and it’s the default search engine as well.”

(65.2382 rubles – U.S. $1)

End