Moscow’s Tagansky District Court slapped Google with an administrative fine of 7.2 billion rubles (around $98.1 million) after it found it guilty of committing administrative offenses on Friday, Russian media report.
The US tech giant was fined amid a growing row for repeatedly failing to take down banned content and this is the first time an IT company to face financial penalties based on the scale of its revenue in Russia. Although it did not specify the percentage, some calculations show it equates to just over 8%.
Google has already paid this year more than 32m roubles in fines over content violations.
It is the largest such penalty issued in Russia as the authorities raise pressure on foreign technology companies to comply with its increasingly strict laws on banned content and localizing data.
It has ordered them to delete posts promoting drug abuse and dangerous pastimes, homemade weapons and explosives information, as well as information shared by groups Russia designates as extremist or terrorist.
Under the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses, the turnover fine is the strictest punishment and is imposed for repeated violations. Prior to this, Google and other social networks were previously fined for breaching Russian law on a case-by-case basis, with penalties not linked to their earnings and usually less than $1 million.
The US tech giant is at odds with Russia on a number of issues including Moscow’s demand to restore access to the state-backed broadcaster RT’s German-language channels and the other heavy fine Google might be hit with after a sanctioned Russian businessman claimed victory last week in a court case against the tech company.
On top of that, Google, along with 13 other foreign and mostly US technology companies, were warned by Moscow they will face possible restrictions or outright bans unless they are set up on Russian soil by January 1.
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