Russia has hit Google with more than $380 million in fines

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Russia has hit Google with more than $380 million in fines
28 Jul 2022
min read

News Synopsis

This month, Google was hit with two sizable fines from Russia totaling $383 million. Google was accused of breaking competition laws with its video platform YouTube on Tuesday and fined 2 billion rubles ($33 million), according to Reuters.

After failing to remove content that media watchdog Roszkomnador claimed contained "fake news" about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles ($350 million at the time of writing).

Although it stopped selling ads in the area in March and blocked Russian state media apps from its European app store, Russia appears to be increasing pressure on the company, which is one of the few US Big Tech companies to still operate a service in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Following the seizure of its bank account by local authorities, Google's Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in May. According to Reuters, a Russian court also fined Google 15 million rubles ($249,000) in June for violating a Russian law requiring tech companies to localise user data.

In response to the most recent fine, a Google spokesperson told Insider, "We will study the text of the official decision to define our next steps."

Due to the invasion of Ukraine, many major US tech companies have either had their access to the country restricted or have been blocked by the Russian government.

TWN In-Focus