UPDATE: Russian antitrust says Google improves partially with mailout

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MOSCOW, Sep 30 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service sees mailout of notifications by Google to Android device users with an option to deactivate its preinstalled applications only as a partial fulfilment of its order, Yelena Zayeva, director of the IT regulation department at the service, said Friday.

“We’ll attentively study the text of the notification, means and ways of its distribution, and decide later as we consider the administrative case, keeping in mind that it’s only part of our order,” Zayeva said.

The U.S. company started sending out notifications late on Thursday. “If you don’t want to use any Google applications, which were preinstalled on your device, like Chrome, Gmail or Google Calendar, you can easily deactivate them,” the company said.

Google also attaches a reference note on how to delete its programs and install applications and widgets of other producers on the main screen.

The antimonopoly watchdog earlier found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position on the local market of preinstalled application stores, which it promoted in a tie-up with its other services. The authority fined the company 438 million rubles and ordered it to fix breaches. The pay date expired in late August.

The authority said earlier it could impose a penalty of up to 500,000 rubles for disrespect of the order by the U.S. company.

Google earlier repeatedly contested the antimonopoly service’s decision at court, and procedures are still under way.

(63.1581 rubles – U.S. $1)

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