MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Supreme Commercial Court will not review a lower court’s decision to impose a 500,000 ruble ($14,465) fine on Russian Rambler Internet Holding for its refusal to provide information on online correspondence, the court told RAPSI on Tuesday.

On July 26, 2013, the Moscow Commercial court invalidated an order of the Federal Financial Markets Service (presently Bank of Russia Financial Markets Service) to hold Rambler liable. However, in late September, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals imposed a 500,000 ruble fine on Rambler for its refusal to disclose the personal email addresses of individuals connected to the company that was probed by the financial markets regulator.

On January 15, a court of cassation upheld the order. Rambler challenged the court rulings in the Supreme Commercial Court. Russian commercial courts are currently reviewing a number of disputes that concern the privacy of correspondence and telephone conversations.

The Moscow Commercial Court on January 16 upheld a previous court decision to impose a 500,000 ruble fine on Mail.Ru for refusal to disclose user data to the Bank of Russia's financial market regulation branch.

The Central Bank of Russia imposed upon the email service provider administrative liability for refusing to disclose personal data on October 11. The market regulator is said to have demanded a message log belonging to one of Mail.ru users. The company refused to comply, since doing so would violate the user's right to privacy of correspondence.

Earlier, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals handed down an opposing ruling in a dispute between telecom giant MTS and the Bank of Russia, by overturning a fine imposed on the mobile operator for its refusal to disclose detailed information on the client's account and his IMEI numbers. The same verdict was contested by another telecom giant Megafon in the Moscow Commercial Court in October.