Google received in Russia the first turnover fine of ₽7.2 billion – RBC

On Friday, December 24, the judicial district of the magistrate No. 422 of the Tagansky district appointed a turnover fine for Google LLC (part of the Alphabet holding) in the amount of 7.221 billion rubles. The company was accused of not deleting information deemed banned in Russia.

Since it was a repeated violation, in accordance with part 5 of Article 13.41 of the Administrative Code, the court had the right to apply a revolving fine to her – from 1/20 to 1/10 of the proceeds for the year preceding the year in which the violation was revealed, but not less than 4 million rubles … According to SPARK, the revenue of Google’s Russian subsidiary Google LLC in 2020 amounted to RUB 85 billion, and its net profit was RUB 1.73 billion.

This is the first time that a turnover penalty is being applied to companies. As previously stated by representatives of Roskomnadzor, Google-owned video hosting YouTube, as well as Facebook and Instagram did not remove materials from extremist and terrorist organizations that incite religious discord, offend the feelings of believers or aimed at splitting the state, promoting the use of drugs, demonstrating places where homemade weapons are sold, a dangerous attitude to the life and health of minors (promoting “catching”, “roofing”, deliberate asphyxiation), etc.

In relation to Google, this year a Russian court considered 16 administrative protocols for failure to delete illegal information within the prescribed time limit. As of October, the service did not delete about 2.6 thousand materials and was brought to administrative responsibility for 37.5 million rubles, said earlier in Roskomnadzor. In relation to Meta Platforms, since the beginning of the year, the court considered 19 administrative protocols, the amount of fines amounted to 70 million rubles.