Giant Google was fined a record $ 98 million in Russia on Friday for failing to comply with restraint orders. The Meta group (Facebook) was also sanctioned.
The sanction fell for Google, sentenced Friday in Russia to a fine of 7.2 billion rubles (98 million dollars or 87 million euros). On site, the Mountain View firm was fined a record by Russian justice for not removing content deemed illegal. The sanctions are linked for the American giant in Russia and others, like Meta, will also have to go to the cash register for similar facts.
Sanctions which are multiplying against foreign digital giants
In recent years and more particularly in recent months, Russia has stepped up the pace regarding sanctions against the big digital players on the planet. Last April, Apple was fined the equivalent of $ 12 million for abusing its dominant position on the App Store in a dispute with Kaspersky. Then Google, in May, was already sanctioned with a fine of around 100,000 dollars for not having removed prohibited content.
The Russian competition regulator, the FAS, had already threatened Google to take the next step and slow down the company’s services, on the one hand, by imposing a fine of up to 10% of turnover. annual business, on the other hand.
On Friday, December 24, Google was fined the equivalent of 87 million euros, a record amount in Russia, for failing to remove content identified as illegal, after being warned by the authorities on multiple occasions.
Google sanctioned for “recidivism”, Meta also fined
The press service of the Moscow courts indicates that it is the “repeat offender” side of Google which motivated the sanction. The type of content that led to this fine being imposed on the American firm has not been revealed, but it is not uncommon for platforms to be penalized for not having removed content promoting drugs or giving a certain exposure to political opposition from the Kremlin.
Google simply told AFP to study the documents provided by the court and reserves its measures for the moment, while it has only a few days left to appeal the decision. Russia has also threatened Google and Apple to shut down some of their Russian-based workers if the companies do not cooperate. Another example of the opposition between the country of the Tsars and foreign digital players: the blocking of several software particularly in demand on VPNs, last September. The application of the imprisoned opponent Alexeï Navalny was also withdrawn from the application stores of the two American giants, at the same time, just before the legislative elections.
In the process, Moscow also sentenced Meta and its Instagram subsidiary to a fine of 2 billion rubles, or about 24 million euros, for a reason similar to that attributed to Google.
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Apple is also convicted in Europe for forcing the use of its payment solution in apps
Source: Engadget
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