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The court fined Google for 21 billion rubles

On July 18, 2022, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow fined Google in case No. 05-1267/422/2022 for 21 billion 77 million 392 thousand 318 rubles 80 kopecks for repeated refusal to remove information prohibited in the Russian Federation. An administrative penalty was imposed under Part 5 of Article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

The turnover fine is based on seventeen repeated notifications from Roskomnadzor to Google demanding the deletion of inaccurate information that were not fulfilled by the American company.

The media reported that a Google representative during the meeting "made motions to postpone, to change jurisdiction to the district court, to request information from the tax office and to exclude part of the evidence, but was refused."

By law, Google has 60 days to pay the fine from the moment the court decision on it comes into force. Google can appeal the court's decision.

This is the second turnover fine against Google. And the largest in the history of Russian and world IT in the country.

On December 24, 2021, the World Court of the Tagansky District of Moscow fined Google 7.2 billion rubles under an article with a turnover fine for massive repeated violations of Russian law and failure to remove prohibited information on the instructions of Roskomnadzor. In May 2022, Google paid this fine.

On June 16, 2022, the Russian subsidiary of Google (Google LLC) filed for its own bankruptcy with the Moscow Arbitration Court. The reason for bankruptcy is sanctions and internal problems of the company in the country. Google explained that the seizure of the Google Russia bank account made it impossible for the Russian office to function, including retaining employees and paying workers in Russia, paying suppliers and contractors, and meeting other financial obligations.

On May 19, Google assured that all the main and currently available services of the company will continue to work in the Russian Federation after the bankruptcy of the Russian office. Google explained that there will be no blocking on its part and the company will continue to provide users from the Russian Federation with free services such as a search engine, YouTube, GMail, Google Maps, Google Play and others.

On May 24, YouTube promised not to leave Russia in order to provide all users with access to independent information.

The court fined Google for 21 billion rubles