A Russian court has ordered Google, an Alphabet company, to pay a fine of 4 billion roubles ($47 million) for disobeying a previous judgement on its alleged misuse of a dominating position in the video hosting industry. The judgement, which was made public by the nation's anti-monopoly agency on Tuesday, is a component of Moscow's growing initiatives to hold international technology corporations accountable by levying hefty fines.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) first penalised Google 2 billion roubles in February 2022. According to reports from the TASS news agency, the FAS charged that Google's YouTube platform took an arbitrary and partial approach to suspending and removing user accounts and material.
Google, on the other hand, decided to contest this ruling, and the business hasn't yet reacted to the most recent sanction levied by the court.
The FAS used Google's failure to pay the last fine, which doubled the amount owing, as justification for the higher penalty. The watchdog came to the conclusion that Google must contribute an extra 4 billion roubles to the budget of the Russian Federation.
Russian official institutions and politicians have exerted enormous pressure on YouTube, which has prohibited Russian state-funded media abroad. However, unlike other major social media platforms like Twitter and Meta's Facebook and Instagram, the Russian authorities has refrained from entirely shutting the website.
Google stopped running internet advertisements in Ukraine when Russia invaded the nation in March 2022. Nevertheless, the business has kept on giving Russian users a few free services. When authorities confiscated its bank account, the Google company in Russia formally declared bankruptcy since it was unable to pay its staff and suppliers.
TASS reported that Google must make the fine payment within 60 days of the court's decision.
