MOSCOW, August 11 (RAPSI) – The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) fined Google Inc. with 438 million rubles ($6.7 million) for violating antimonopoly legislation by preinstalling applications on Android smartphones, the antimonopoly watchdog’s statement reads on Thursday.
On September 18, 2015, FAS found Google guilty of violation the legislation.
On March 15 2016, the Moscow Commercial Court dismissed Google’s petition requesting to abolish the FAS decision and order issued in September 2015, which stated that the company had violated the Federal Law on Protection of Competition and accusing it of abuse of dominance on the market of preinstalled applications in the Android operating system.
FAS requested Google to remedy the detected breeches by amending agreements the company made with producers of devices until December 18. The case was opened at the request of Yandex, one of the largest internet companies in Europe, operating Russia's most popular search engine and a website. Google filed a lawsuit against the FAS order but it was dismissed by the Moscow Commercial Court.
At the end of March, FAS informed that Google had submitted the complete set of data with regard to the company’s operations on the Russian market in 2014, including information about earnings on the part of Google Play and related products. At that time the antimonopoly watchdog stated that it could calculate the amount of fine, but did not make it public.
On April 19, Igor Artemyev, FAS Head, said that Google was to be fined for its operations on the Russian market; however, the amount of the fine would be much less than in Europe.
Earlier, a Google representative said that the company had lodged an appeal against this decision. According to this representative, Google continued to cooperate with Russian authorities and explain how Android ecosystem operated.
“[It – ed.] actively encourages competition allowing consumers to get mobile devices of superior quality across the price range,” – the Google representative noted, adding that the platform permitted consumers and producers of gadgets, as well as carrier service providers to make choices.
In its turn, Yandex claimed that Google was trying to deflect attention away from the main issue of the case, since “the FAS decision and order have nothing to do with Android merits as a platform and in no way restrict its development and potential.” According to a Yandex representative, the question was primarily about anti-competition practices, i.e. bans and restrictions on the distribution of competitors’ applications Google used to prohibit them preinstall applications and to gain unjustified advantage.
