Russia: Light tap on the wrist, $6.7m dollar antitrust fine for Google

Russia’s antimonopoly watchdog fined Alphabet Google 438 million rubles on Thursday for competition violations, the latest step in a long-running and high-profile legal battle.

The fine comes ahead of a court appeal later this month by Google against the watchdog’s ruling that it violated laws by bundling, or pre-loading, a suite of apps on mobile phones for sale on the Russian market. The legal battle goes to the heart of a struggle for Russian market share between Google and Russian technology company Yandex, which specializes in internet and mobile phone-related goods and services.

“The fine itself is just a fine. What will decide things going ahead is the court case that will either help or hurt Yandex’s distribution of products and services on Android,” said Vladimir Bespalov, an analyst at VTB Capital.

Google said it had received notice of the fine and would analyze it closely before deciding next steps.

“In the meantime, we continue to talk to all invested parties to help consumers, device manufacturers and developers thrive on Android in Russia,” Google said in a statement.

The Russian watchdog last fall ordered Google to end violations of antitrust laws in a victory for Yandex NV, which has a rival internet search engine.

Full Content: NY Times

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