Russia

Russian Antimonopoly Service Fines Google $34Mln for Opaque Blocking Rules on YouTube

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced on Tuesday that it has fined Google 2 billion rubles ($34.8 million) for abusing its dominant position on the market by arbitrary blocking accounts on YouTube.
Sputnik
In February, FAS found Google guilty of violating antitrust laws by applying "non-transparent, biased and unpredictable" blocking rules against YouTube users.

"As a result of an administrative investigation, FAS of Russia has imposed a turnover fine of over 2 billion rubles ($34,886,073.22) on Google LLC for violating antimonopoly law," the statement read.

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The company must pay the fine within two months after the document enters into legal force, the statement added.
The ruling comes after a Russian court issued another major fine for Google: the company has to pay reaching 21 billion rubles (more than $370 million) for refusing to deleted banned content from YouTube. According to information watchdog Roskomnadzor, at least 7,000 illegal posts remain on the platform.
FAS launched a probe into Google's rules regarding the formation, suspension, blocking of accounts and handling of user content on YouTube in April 2021.
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