Russia’s national regulator fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 438 million rubles ($6.75 million) for violating antitrust rules on tablets and mobile phones, after reviewing a complaint filed by local search engine Yandex NV previous year.
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The US Google Corporation will examine the decision made by the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and determine its further actions after that, press service of Google told TASS on Thursday.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is being assessed the penalty after a complaint was filed by Russian company Yandex stemming from Google’s requirement for mobile-devices powered by its Android operating system to pre-install some of the company’s services.
In January 2016, Head of FAS Igor Artemyev said Russia’s competition law violation penalty for U.S. Google Corporation will most likely amount to 7 percent of the turnover in 2014. The world’s leading phone software supplier also didn’t allow third-party services, such as Yandex’s search, to be preinstalled, the regulator said at the time.
Google was ordered by FAS to change its agreements with device makers. The latest appeal hearing has been scheduled for August 16.
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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”.
