UPDATE: Russian antitrust declines Google’s plea for more time to comply

(Changes headline, lede, adds paragraphs 2–3)

MOSCOW, Sep 13 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has declined a request of Google, which it earlier found guilty of abusing dominance on the local market of preinstalled application stores, for more time to fix violations, the authority said Tuesday in a statement.

Google asked on September 2 to extend the period to execute the service’s orders from one to 12 months, depending on a clause of the order. The deadline expired on August 29, and the service gave 10 more days to inform it of the fulfilment.

It was taken into account that the time given to Google was already extended by one month until December 18, 2015, on the same grounds of a huge volume of work.

The service’s Director Igor Artemyev said earlier on Tuesday that the authority was not inclined to extend the period given to Google to fix its breaches.

“Now the official who made the corresponding decision should take steps. We will speak to that person, but my point of view is that we should not stretch (the term); they’ve already had plenty of time,” Artemyev said.

The antitrust service said in early September that it had received a request from the U.S. company, which was fined 438 million rubles, to prolong the period to execute the authority’s order.

The watchdog not only fined Google, but also ordered it to fix violations regarding the imposition of restrictive conditions for device manufacturers. The authority said in late August that the U.S. giant could face another penalty up to 500,000 rubles if it fails to fix breaches.

(65.0539 rubles – U.S. $1)

End