MOSCOW, August 30 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court has fined Megafon 30,000 rubles (roughly $1,035) for failing to prevent its subscribers SMS messages from being leaked on the Internet, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reports from the courtroom.
The court has fined Megafon under an application filed by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).
The service submitted the lawsuit to the court after several thousand SMS messages sent to Megafon subscribers from the Megafon website on July 19 became available on the Yandex search engine, where searches yielded both SMS content and addressee phone numbers.
The court decision may be appealed within 10 days after it was passed.
Megafon told journalists that the company is not ready to comment on the decision, or to discuss a possible appeal. The company will be able to do this after studying the full text of the decision.
Roskomnadzor Assistant Director Mikhail Vorobyov earlier told RIA Novosti that Megafon violated its subscribers rights to privacy, secrecy of communications, confidentiality of personal data, and quality telecommunications services.