MOSCOW, November 16 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court on Monday dismissed Twitter’s challenge against institution of enforcement proceedings in a case over the 4 million-ruble (over $50,000 at the current exchange rate) fine imposed on the company for refusal to place its servers in Russia, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

The court considered the civil claim of Twitter against Bailiff Maxim Dumakov and rejected it. The administrative plaintiffs claimed the Federal Bailiff Service had no competence to initiate enforcement proceedings against a legal entity not registered and not operating in Russia, the statement reads.

In mid-February, a magistrate court in Moscow fined Twitter and Facebook 4 million rubles each for breaching of user data storage requirements. Twitter challenged the ruling in two Moscow courts. The Tagansky District Court dismissed the appeal in mid-March.

Earlier, in late January, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor instituted administrative proceedings against Facebook and Twitter.

The proceedings were commenced as the companies failed to provide in time information on fulfilment of requirements on the localization of databases of Russian social media users on servers located in Russia, as stipulated by the Law On Personal Data.