Russia charged Google Inc $34.2 million on July 26 for violating competition rules
The body in charge of making sure businesses adhere to the rules and don’t act illegally in Russia fined Google Inc. $34.2 million on July 26 for violating its dominance in the market for video hosting, the administrator said. This judgment is the most recently more than $1 million charge in the backdrop of Moscow’s increasingly aggressive drive against Western countries’ technology companies. The Federal Anti-monopoly Service said that the tech giant had broken its position in the market for sharing videos on YouTube, but didn’t say how.
When questioned about a statement about the relevant issue, the IT giant responded that it would review the authorities’ judgment before taking any further action. The Federal Anti-monopoly Service further stated that the corporation must pay the fine in full within two months of the penalty taking effect. In recent months, the nation has levied a number of fines against Google’s Russian subsidiary. A judge asked the Google subsidiary in Russia for $358.7 million a week ago in a case that, according to the company’s legal counsel, was brought against it because it wouldn’t take down content that the Russian government thought was illegal, like “fake news” about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
In an effort to achieve more power over the digital world, Moscow has accelerated its criticism of international technology companies operating in Russia since the start of the conflict with Ukraine. One of the strategies includes employing domestic companies to drive out these companies. A local media business in Russia called Gazprom Media, which is affiliated with the state-run oil giant Gazprom, has been aggressively promoting RuTube, a Russian video hosting service that competes with YouTube and has seen a sudden increase in traffic since the beginning of February.
After the American online video platform blacklisted the media organizations supported by the Russian government, it came under intense pressure from the nation’s political and communication authorities. The tech giant has stopped selling web advertisements in the nation as of March this year, but it has kept some free operations. After the government took over the bank account of Google’s Russian branch and made it impossible for the company to pay its employees, the company filed for bankruptcy.