Google Russia

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Performance indicators

Main article: Revenue and profit of Google in Russia

2022:82% drop in revenue to RUB 24.2 billion

The revenue of the Russian subsidiary Google in 2022 amounted to 24.2 billion rubles, which is 82% less than a year earlier. Such data are contained in the financial report, which Google LLC disclosed in early May 2023.

According to TASS, citing the company's materials, its net loss in 2022 turned out to be 10.2 billion rubles, which is 61% less than losses a year ago.

In November 2022, the Arbitration Court of Appeal introduced an initial bankruptcy procedure against Google LLC at the request of the company. Then it was reported that the receivables of Google's subsidiary in Russia amounted to 27.025 billion rubles. In addition, the court materials said that the amount of the company's monetary obligations to creditors is 18.7 billion rubles. The debt on remuneration of the debtor's employees and payment of severance pay to them is 271.2 million rubles, on mandatory payments - 85.7 million rubles.

Google began preparing to close its office in Moscow long before filing for bankruptcy. In March 2022, the company began exporting employees from Russia. A significant part of those who agreed to the relocation were sent to Dubai. Those who did not want to move were fired.

In May 2022, Google began disconnecting the servers of the Google Global Cache network located in Russia, which, in particular, provides quick delivery of Google content (including videos on YouTube) to customers of Russian Internet providers.

In the spring of 2022, the confrontation between Google and the Russian authorities escalated in connection with the special military operation of Russia in Ukraine. As a result, Roskomnadzor blocked access to the Google news aggregator due to the distribution of "numerous materials containing inaccurate information about the situation in Ukraine."^[1]

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History

2024

Google received fines of 25 billion rubles in three years

The amount Google of fines in relation to the last three years amounted to more than 25 billion. Since rubles 2021, it has already exceeded 34.5 billion rubles. Roskomnadzor This was told at the end of December 2024.

The department stressed that Google has blocked in total more than 200 channels of Russian media, journalists, public figures, as well as domestic musicians. In July 2024, Roskomnadzor once again demanded that the company unblock the channels, but unrequited.

Google Russia sued ₽2,5 billion hidden in advertising agencies

On December 9, 2024, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal satisfied the claims of the bankrupt Google LLC against the advertising agencies Mgcom and Lion Communications to recover debts totaling ₽2,5 billion. The agencies tried to challenge the need to pay the penalty, citing requests from Google employees to defer payments in 2022.

According to CNews, the court ordered Lyon Communications to pay ₽376 million of the principal debt and ₽300 million penalties as of September 10, 2024. Mgcom must pay off a debt of ₽776 million and a penalty of ₽700 million.

Google Russia sued ₽2,5 billion from advertising agencies

The arbitration manager of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky discovered the debt of Lion Communications to the Google Advertising Service Agreement structure in the amount of ₽1,6 billion for 271 accounts. The company repaid ₽1,29 billion and tried to offset the remaining amount.

In the case of Mgcom, the initial amount owed was ₽3 billion. The agency repaid ₽2,225 million and contributed ₽1,3 billion to the court's deposit. Both companies did not dispute the principal amount of the debt, but objected to the penalty, citing letters from Google managers asking them to suspend payments.

The court did not take into account the correspondence with Google employees as a basis for non-payment, since in the fall of 2022 a monitoring procedure was introduced against Google LLC, excluding the possibility of offsets. The total amount of recognized debt of Google LLC is ₽19 billion.

In addition to litigation with advertising agencies, Lion Communications is trying to recover ₽376 million from Google LLC as part of the bankruptcy procedure. As interim measures, the court seized the agency's accounts in the amount of ₽643 million, which were subsequently deposited by the court.

The appellate court obliged to continue to charge a penalty to both defendants in the amount of the key rate of the Central Bank plus 2% for each day of delay until the debt is fully repaid. At the same time, the defendants unsuccessfully tried to challenge the competence of the court, referring to the arbitration clause on the consideration of disputes in the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia.^[2]

The bankruptcy trustee demanded the return of ₽166 million premiums of top managers

On October 21, 2024, it became known that the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a request to return ₽166,3 million paid as bonuses and wages to former top managers and employees of the Russian division of the company. The applications were sent as part of the bankruptcy procedure of Google LLC, which was declared insolvent in October 2023.

According to Interfax, the bankruptcy trustee disputes the accrual of wages to former company leaders for the period 2022-2023 for a total of ₽11,5 million. Among them are the general director of Google LLC David Munro Sneddon, managing director director Yulia Solovyova and financial director Yulia Ramazanova. In addition, payments of material assistance to Solovyova and Ramazanova in the amount of ₽8,1 million are disputed.

The requirement of the bankruptcy trustee to return ₽166 million premiums of top managers

Talyarovsky also demands to invalidate and recover from Sneddon, Solovyova and Ramazanova the payments made to them for 2022-2023 in the amount of ₽8,2 million. A separate paragraph in the statement indicates the requirement to recognize the missing debt of Google LLC to these persons on wages and financial assistance.

The most significant part of the contested amounts falls on employee bonuses. The bankruptcy trustee demands to invalidate the orders for bonuses to former employees of Google LLC for a total of ₽138,5 million. This amount includes annual and quarterly bonuses, as well as bonuses on the recommendation of the manager and colleagues.

The bankruptcy procedure of Google LLC was initiated by the company itself in June 2022. At the time of filing for bankruptcy, creditors' claims exceeded ₽19 billion, while the company's assets amounted to only about ₽3,5 billion. In September 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court introduced a monitoring procedure against the company, and in October 2023 it declared Google LLC bankrupt and introduced bankruptcy proceedings.^[3]

Блондинка.ру Agency paid Google Russia ₽135 million in debts

On October 7, 2024, it became known about the repayment of the debt by the digital agency JSC Блондинка.ру to Google LLC (a Russian legal entity the AmericanGoogle declared bankrupt) in the amount of ₽135 million. The debt was formed for services under the Google program and Advertisement was paid by the parent structure of the agency - fintech the company. JSC "Tochka" More here

New Google accounts can no longer be confirmed using a Russian mobile number

In September 2024, Russian users encountered problems when registering a new account in: Google to confirm, the platform required them to enter a phone number, but when entering the Russian code, a warning appeared: "This number cannot be used for confirmation."

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development after that said that Google has limited the creation of new accounts for users from Russia.

Telecom operators also recorded a significant reduction in the number of SMS sent by the company to Russian users, the department said.

The court declared illegal the receipt of Google dividends of 9.5 billion rubles from the Russian "daughter"

On September 26, 2024, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal confirmed the illegality of receiving 9.5 billion rubles of dividends from the Russian subsidiary of Google LLC by the American Google International LLC. Thus, the decision of the lower instance was upheld.

As follows from the data of the file of arbitration cases, the Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of Google, which asked to cancel the decision of the Arbitration Court made in July 2024. Moscow The first instance recognized as illegal the transfer of almost 9.5 billion rubles of dividends to Google International LLC, as well as the deduction of taxes on them in the amount of 500 million rubles. In total, the court recovered from the American company about 10 billion rubles in the bankruptcy estate of Google LLC.

Google Office

The bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky said that Google International LLC, the only participant in the Russian subsidiary, in December 2020 decided to distribute up to 10 billion rubles in profit for 2015-2017. The court, as noted by the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information, considered that the contested transaction for 9.5 billion rubles was made within three years before the adoption of Google LLC for bankruptcy and falls into a "period of suspicion." Talyarovsky's statement noted that the decisions and transactions took place against the background of the proceedings in the courts with the Tsargrad TV channel, which ended with the award of a multibillion-dollar progressive judicial penalty to Google structures.

In the spring of 2022, Tsargrad announced that it had received 1 billion rubles in penalties from Google, with which the channel was suing for blocking its own YouTube page. Then it was noted that the bailiffs arrested the money in Google accounts, and then seized it in favor of the TV channel.

^[4]

Restricting the creation of new accounts in Russia

Google has limited the creation of new accounts in its services to users in Russia. This was announced on September 26, 2024 by representatives of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation.

Since September 2024, Russian users have received messages about the impossibility of registering new Google accounts. In particular, to confirm the creation of an account, you need to enter a phone number, but when specifying a Russian code, a warning is issued that it "cannot be used for confirmation." Other users complain about problems with SMS confirmations.

Google Office

The Ministry of Digital Development confirms that Google has limited the creation of new accounts. Telecom operators also recorded a significant reduction in the number of SMS sent by the company to Russian users, the department notes.

The Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development emphasizes that SMS the confirmation as the second authorization factor for previously created Google accounts as of September 2024 is working, but "there is no confidence that this possibility will continue." Therefore, the agency recommends that Russian users of Google services create backups of their data, as well as switch to the use of alternative methods two-factor authentications in the services of an American company or migrate to domestic platforms.

An analyst at MForum Analytics Aleksei Boyko attributes difficulties registering Google accounts to new US sanctions that came into force on September 12, 2024. And the leading analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin says that such failures occurred before.

This is a permanent problem that there is a problem with registration from Russian numbers, an SMS gateway falls from which you can do this, "says Murtazin, quoted by RBC.

Google AI Edge Brand Registration Application

American Google has applied to Rospatent to register the brand of the AI service Google AI Edge. This was announced by RB.ru on September 17, 2024. According to experts, this is the fourth application for registration of various services since May 2024.

The application was submitted in classes MCTU 9 and 42 (software, machine learning, artificial intelligence).

Google AI Edge is a cross-platform low-code system for quickly building applications using artificial intelligence.

I assume that this is being done in order to strengthen its position among Russian developers of applications using AI, "Vladimir Korshunov, co-founder and CEO of Agrosignal, explained to RB.RU.

According to the expert, Google registers a tool for developing applications with artificial intelligence, focused primarily on mobile devices. The company is obviously looking to strengthen its Gemini model, apparently focusing on developers, Korshunov said.

Google is actively protecting its new IT products on the Russian market by registering trademarks. This will allow the company to prevent the illegal use of its designations and will make it possible to demand compensation of up to 5 million rubles for violations.

In 2024, the American corporation filed several applications for trademark registration in Russia. The company decided to protect Google Vids (short video exchange via the Internet, application filed on May 27), Google Axion Processor (central processor devices, microchips, microprocessors, August 16), Google Gemini (AI for creating human speech and other technologies, August 1).

According to the sanctions that entered into force on September 12, 2024 USA , Google decided to turn off in Russia, cloud service BigQuery which had worked for 10 years. The service was used to process and analyze a large amount of data. In March 2022, Google turned off monetization for Russian bloggers, and in Youtube August 2024 it finally closed Adsense for Russians. The company also bankrupt its Russian division, Google LLC.

The court recovered 2 billion rubles from Google in favor of the Federal Tax Service of Russia

The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District on September 2, 2024 made a final decision to recover ₽2 billion from the Russian division of Google in favor of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) of Russia. This decision concludes legal proceedings, which began back in September 2023.

According to Finmarket, the requirement of the Federal Tax Service to include debt in the register of creditors of Google LLC was recognized as justified by the court of first instance in March 2024 and confirmed by the appellate instance in June 2024. Google International LLC, the parent company of Google LLC, filed a cassation appeal, which was rejected.

Google

The litigation began after Google LLC filed for bankruptcy in June 2022. In September 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized the statement as justified and introduced a monitoring procedure against the company. According to the court, at the time of filing the application, the company had receivables of ₽27 billion 25 million, with total monetary liabilities to creditors of ₽18,7 billion.

Among the company's assets indicated in the court acts are funds in an account in Citibank in the amount of ₽636 thousand, fixed assets are valued at ₽28,5 million, intangible assets - ₽14 million, inventory - ₽15,2 million, as well as other assets with a total value of ₽3,8 billion. At the same time, the debt on remuneration of employees and payment of severance pay amounted to ₽271,2 million, and on mandatory payments - ₽85,7 million.

The court's decision to recover ₽2 billion from Google LLC and include this amount in the register of creditors has become an important stage in the process of resolving the company's financial obligations. The Federal Tax Service of Russia confirmed its position at all stages of the trial, which ultimately led to the refusal to satisfy the cassation appeal of Google International LLC.^[5]

The court ruled to recover 32.4 billion rubles from Google Russia at the suit of the Tsargrad media holding

In August 2024 Supreme Court of Russia , he confirmed the legality of the decisions of three lower courts, which obliged Google LLC, the Russian division, to pay Google "Tsargrad" ₽32,4 billion to the media holding.

According to Prime, this decision was the result of a months-long trial launched after the blocking of the TsargradTV YouTube channel.

The court ruled to recover 32.4 billion rubles from Google Russia in the lawsuit "Tsargrad"

Earlier, the courts ordered Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Google to restore access to the TsargradTV channel on the YouTube platform, as well as renew the account agreement to monetize advertising. In case of non-compliance with these requirements, a progressively increasing penalty was established, which reached ₽32,8 billion on January 8, 2023.

Earlier, the Moscow Arbitration Court included this amount in the register of creditors' claims, defining it as a claim with a reduced order of satisfaction. In February 2024, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal reduced the amount of claims by ₽358 million, indicating that the accrual of penalties ceases from the moment the observation procedure is introduced.

By August 2024, the bankruptcy procedure of Google LLC continues. As of April 17, 2024, the register of claims of the third stage lists 1145 creditors with a total amount of claims of over ₽23,2 billion, of which about ₽21,6 billion are requirements of the Federal Tax Service of Russia.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Russia of August 19, 2024 finally enshrines the legality of the claims of the Tsargrad media holding against Google Russia and obliges the company to pay a significant amount as penalties.^[6]

Bankruptcy trustee of Google Russia: Servers will be confiscated from the company to pay a debt of 10 billion rubles

On August 7, 2024, it became known that the American corporation Google could confiscate servers in Russia to pay a debt of 10 billion rubles. This equipment is used, among other things, to maintain the operation of YouTube video hosting and other online services.

Valery Talyarovsky, bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC, spoke about the situation in an interview with the Computerra resource. According to him, by the beginning of August 2024, Google Corporation did not comply with the court decision obliging it to return 10 billion rubles to the Russian subsidiary of Google LLC, which were paid as dividends. As Talyarovsky emphasizes, the recovery of these funds from Google is problematic, despite the fact that on the scale of the American company's business it is an "insignificant amount."

Russian servers that ensure the operation of YouTube may be taken from Google due to debt of 10 billion rubles

If this requirement subsequently interferes with their further activities in their main business, perhaps they will repay it, and if they do not voluntarily repay this requirement, then the collection may take a significant time, and they may sue for a long time and not pay, - said the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC.

Talyarovsky also notes that Google may appeal the earlier court decision. In this situation, Google LLC does not exclude foreclosure on Google property located in Russia. This is primarily about servers, but the problem is that their status is unclear, since they may be leased or owned by Russian companies. According to the bankruptcy trustee, the equipment can be burdened with certain contracts, so the arrest is not imposed on him. In general, as Talyarovsky emphasizes, "it is not clear on what basis and where the servers are located."^[7]

Receipt of payment of 29 million rubles from the advertising agency "TuBiDu"

On August 5, 2024, it became known that the advertising agency TuBiDu"" paid ₽29 million to a subsidiary Google in. Russia The cash was transferred on July 26, 2024 to Google LLC, which is in bankruptcy. The amount of payment includes the principal debt in the amount of ₽24,7 million and accrued interest in the amount of ₽4,8 million. More. here

Google fined 5 million rubles for refusing to comply with the order of Roskomnadzor

The magistrate of the Tagansky district of Moscow fined Google 5 million rubles for refusing to comply with the order of Roskomnadzor, the press service of Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, said on August 1, citing RIA Novosti.

Thus, Google LLC was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under Article 19.7.10-4 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation - we are talking about the failure of the owner of the social network to comply with the order of Roskomnadzor to remove information "similar to the degree of confusion with information, measures to remove which the owner of the social network is obliged to take on the basis of a previously sent requirement."

Earlier, the court repeatedly fined the company after the violations identified by Roskomnadzor. Thus, Google became the first company in respect of which, for the first time in judicial practice, part 5 of article 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation was applied with a revolving fine: at the end of 2021, Google was fined 7.2 billion rubles. Subsequently, the American company received two more working fines: 21.7 billion rubles - for the failure to remove fakes about the actions of the Russian army during the SVO; 4.6 billion - for the repeated refusal to remove fakes about SVO from YouTube.

Problems with moderation on various Google services and sites, including the prompt removal of illegal and prohibited information, indicate that this is the general policy of the IT giant. Obviously, the corporation does not pay enough attention to user security, said Anton Nemkin.

By the fact that problems with moderation on Google sites, for example, on YouTube, have not been resolved for years, we can conclude that the corporation is not very trying to solve them. Perhaps Google is only doing the necessary minimum to keep the audience, but also not spend too much money on protecting it. In addition, Google is trying to reduce human participation in moderation by dropping all the work on artificial intelligence. This is an alarming trend that can lead to the fact that users will not only constantly stumble upon destructive content, but will not be able to really complain about it, "the deputy said.

Unlike the resources of the IT giant, which ignores Russian law and decided that it is its own law, our platforms comply with legal norms, provide high-quality self-monitoring and are responsible for user safety. Another factor - being in the United States, video hosting more or less actively reacts only to claims from local control bodies. In the case of the letter sent by Roskomnadzor to the general director of Google LLC Sundaru Pichai, the department still did not receive an answer to it. Instead of a dialogue, video hosting, which belongs to Google, continues to apply restrictive measures to Russian resources, 83 of them were blocked only in 2024, Nemkin recalled.

Recovery of 432 million rubles from the advertising agency "Artix IS"

On July 31, 2024, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the claim of Google LLC, the Russian division of Google, declared bankrupt, and recovered more than ₽432 million from the advertising agency Artix IS LLC. The dispute arose under the agreement on the provision of advertising services dated August 15, 2019. Read more here.

Moscow court recovered 1.5 billion rubles from an advertising agency at the suit of Google's subsidiary

The Moscow Arbitration Court on July 26, 2024 satisfied the claim of the Russian division of Google (Google LLC), declared bankrupt, to recover about ₽1,5 billion from Emdzhik LLC, which owns the large advertising agency MGCom. The decision was made in favor of a subsidiary of the American corporation. Read more here

Roskomnadzor demanded that Google remove the block from Russian YouTube channels

The decision of Roskomnadzor to appeal to the general director of Google regarding the removal of blocking from Russian YouTube channels was absolutely logical. This was announced on July 17, 2024 by the press service of Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications.

In the last 4 years alone, YouTube has blocked more than 200 accounts, the Russian MEDIA authorities and public figures.

Roskomnadzor sent a demand to the general director of Google LLC Sundara Pichai to unblock more than 200 YouTube accounts of Russian media, federal authorities, enterprises and sports clubs, as well as various public, political and musical figures who speak out in support of the Russian Federation and the actions of the authorities.

Since 2020, video hosting has applied restrictive measures to 207 domestic resources, to 83 of them in 2024. The sanctions included RT, RBC channels, accounts of Shaman music artists, Oleg Gazmanov, Yulia Chicherina, writer Zakhar Prilepin, designer and blogger Artemy Lebedev and others.

Such actions of video hosting are unacceptable, this is an act of censorship. YouTube adheres to an uncompromisingly Russophobic policy. Preference is always given to adherents of pro-Western ideals, and the accounts of Russian bloggers and journalists are blocked without explanation. The victims are not only those who voice their position on various political issues, but also people who, in principle, speak well about Russia, "Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

According to Nemkin, the YouTube moderation system works perfectly only when something needs to be censored, recently this is content that is related to Russia. YouTube stubbornly does not want to hear the calls of regulators and stop - in contrast to blocked Russian resources, more than 60 thousand prohibited materials are still available there, which contain: fakes about SVO, extremist materials, propaganda of non-traditional sexual preferences, content about the involvement of minors in illegal actions.

Unlike outright fakes and other illegal content, harmless videos with the participation of Russian authors are removed instantly, even if the blogger has nothing to do with politics. This is outright Russophobia. Therefore, Roskomnadzor did the right thing by demanding that Google's CEO unlock Russian YouTube accounts. This is an absolutely logical decision, we will observe the reaction, "he said.

YouTube has a huge monthly audience in Russia - more than 90 million people. If we imagine that all these users will switch exclusively to Russian platforms, then their traffic will grow, of course, significantly - and, by the way, they are ready for this from a technological point of view. At the same time, the more citizens use domestic resources and give feedback to developers, the faster we will be able to create such platforms, which in their functionality will be much better than their foreign counterparts. Support for domestic decisions by the population will stimulate our product to develop and become even better in order to finally oust from the market such platforms that, in pursuit of their own interests, forget about the principles of freedom of speech and care for users, Nemkin concluded.

A court in Moscow recovered 10 billion rubles from Google

In early July 2024, the Moscow Arbitration Court recovered about 10 billion rubles from the American company Google in favor of its bankrupt Russian division.

According to TASS, citing the press service of the court, the decision of the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow partially satisfied the requirements of the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky and recovered from Google International LLC in favor of Google LLC.

Moscow Arbitration Court recovered about 10 billion rubles from the American company Google

According to the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC, the court invalidated two transactions concluded by the company in 2021. The first concerned the transfer of 9.5 billion rubles to Google International LLC, and the second - the transfer to the budget of the Russian Federation of 500 million rubles of taxes on these dividends. The transactions took place on the eve of bankruptcy and were aimed at withdrawing assets.

In April 2024, it became known that the bankruptcy procedure of the Russian subsidiary Google was extended for another six months. Now the bankruptcy trustee will have to report to the court on October 28, 2024.

The bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC demanded that the transfer of billions of rubles of the parent company by Google's subsidiary be declared illegal. According to Talyarovsky, the payment of dividends was carried out in conditions when the financial condition of the corporation's division "met the signs of insolvency."

On July 1, 2024, TASS reported that the Russian division of Google Corporation, declared bankrupt, in 2024 filed claims in the amount of almost 10 billion rubles to 13 Russian companies. The activities of 12 of the 13 defendants relate to advertising or marketing, and the maximum amount of one claim was 3 billion rubles.

Yevgeny Arbuzov, a partner of the law firm Art De Lex, representing the interests of the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC, who was present at the court session, did not rule out that the company would try to challenge the decision.

If the court rejects Google's appeal, in order to receive the amount paid in the form of dividends, the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC will still need to take steps to implement this decision, Arbuzov said in a conversation with RBC.[8]

The court arrested 8 billion rubles in the accounts of advertising companies to pay off the debts of the Russian subsidiary Google

In June 2024, the City Arbitration Court Moscow arrested more than 8 billion rubles in the accounts of advertising agencies and platforms to pay off the debts of the bankrupt Russian division - Google Google LLC, follows from the file of arbitration cases. These measures were taken to ensure the execution of court decisions on the collection of debts to the company's creditors. More. here

Compensation claim of 10 billion rubles from the parent company

On April 11, 2024, it became known that the bankrupt Russian subsidiary Google is demanding compensation of 10 billion rubles from the parent corporation.

According to TASS, citing a message published on Fedresurs, the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky filed an application with the Moscow Arbitration Court with a request to recover from Google International LLC about 9.5 billion rubles paid to the parent company in 2021, as well as 500 million rubles of the taxes listed.

Google demands compensation of 10 billion rubles from the parent corporation

Talyarovsky said in a statement that on December 22, 2021, the Russian Google transferred dividends to Google in the amount of $128.7 million. The payment of dividends was carried out in conditions when the financial condition of Google "met the signs of insolvency, while there were claims of independent creditors, subsequently included in the register of claims," the bankruptcy trustee of the Russian company approves.

He also pointed out that dividends were paid from the profits of previous years, namely 2015 − 2017. At the same time, the amount paid corresponds to 32% of the book value of assets of Google LLC at the end of 2020, he notes.

According to Talyarovsky, decisions on the distribution of profits were made against the background of litigation with the Tsargrad media holding, as a result of which the American search engine was required to pay a multi-billion dollar penalty. According to the bankruptcy trustee, in this regard, the transactions were invalid, as they were carried out against the backdrop of the upcoming bankruptcy of the Russian subsidiary Google and caused damage to creditors.

The bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC said that Google "deliberately sought" harm to the property rights of creditors when distributing the profits of its company in Russia.^[9]

Moscow City Court approves third negotiable fine for Google

On April 10, 2024, the Moscow City Court approved the imposition of a revolving fine of 4.61 billion rubles on Google for refusing the company to delete information that is prohibited by Russian law.

According to Interfax with reference to the press service of the court, the decision of the Tagansky court on the appointment of an administrative fine against Google in the amount of 4 611 738 636 rubles "was left unchanged, the applicant's appeal was not satisfied."

Moscow City Court approved the imposition of a revolving fine in the amount of 4.61 billion rubles on Google

Earlier, the Tagansky court found Google guilty of repeated failure to remove information prohibited in Russia (part 5 of article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses; The minimum penalty under this article for companies is from 1/20 to 1/10 of the total revenue for the year preceding the time of detection of the offense.). The reason for the initiation of the case was several videos on YouTube. They, as the court established, contained information about the losses of the Russian army during the military operation in Ukraine, about civilian casualties and plans to use nuclear weapons. In addition, videos posted on YouTube saw propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and extremist materials. This court order was issued in a case initiated by the Office of Roskomnadzor for the Central Federal District.

This is the third negotiable fine imposed on a company in Russia for non-removal of prohibited and unreliable content. The size of the first fine amounted to 7.22 billion rubles, the second - 21.7 billion rubles. Both fines were imposed in accordance with Part 5 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code (re-failure of content). In both cases, the bailiffs were able to recover funds from the company.^[10]

Full collection of fines in Russia

Bailiffs in Russia have fully recovered billions of fines from Google and Meta (the company is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation, its activities are prohibited) - by January 1, 2024, there is no data on enforcement proceedings against these companies in the bank of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP). Read more here.

2023

Telecom operators in Russia will directly connect to the Google network

On December 25, 2023, it became known that Google Corporation offered Russian operators a new format for exchanging traffic with its network - via a direct connection. It is expected that this will preserve high-quality access to Google services without the need to use Google Global Cache caching servers, the supply of which to Russia has been stopped due to the emerging geopolitical situation.

According to RBC, operators in the Russian Federation are expanding the number of direct joints with Google's infrastructure, which allows speeding up the content download process. In particular, Google invited Russian companies to organize new direct connections in Moscow or St. Petersburg to maintain high-quality access to the company's services. This approach has been used to interact with Google services before. In particular, representatives of Transtelecom said that the operator has had direct joints with Google in Moscow and St. Petersburg for many years and continues to "actively expand them in 2023." Rostelecom also confirmed the presence of joints with Google networks, adding that these connections are expanding "as the need arises."

Market participants note that in its letter on the organization of direct joints, Google did not mention Google Global Cache servers, and its proposal "concerned other equipment." It is said, in particular, that from January 2024, Google will stop transmitting data through routing servers at traffic exchange points (IX). Such sites are located in the largest cities of the world, including Moscow (MSK-IX) and St. Petersburg (Piter-IX).

We found that today we rely on routing servers to exchange traffic with your network at some traffic exchange points. As soon as we stop supporting the route server, this traffic will change. To minimize the impact, we would like to invite you to connect to Google directly as soon as possible, "RBC quotes an excerpt from a Google letter sent to Russian operators.[11]

A fine of 4.6 billion rubles for failing to lie about a special operation

On December 20, 2023, the Tagansky Court of Moscow ruled to impose a fine on Google in the amount of 4.61 billion rubles for the company's refusal to delete inaccurate information about the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. This is the third negotiable fine for the Russian "daughter" Google.

According to TASS, Google was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 5 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (repeated failure to delete information if the obligation to remove such information is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation).

According to RIA Novosti"," the meeting began with the fact that the lawyer asked to request information about the powers of the officials who drew up the protocol, as well as to call employees for interrogation, Roskomnadzor screenshots were drawn up with the participation, but "there are discrepancies in the date and time of the screenshots, which are put up by machine and manually." The judge refused.

The reason for drawing up a protocol against the company was videos on YouTube, which posted inaccurate information about the losses of the Russian army during a special operation, about casualties among civilians and plans to use nuclear weapons. The video also featured content promoting non-traditional sexual relationships and extremist material. Roskomnadzor sent Google a second notification about the need to remove these videos, but the company did not.

The negotiable fine is the strictest under Article 13.41 of the Administrative Code "Violation of the procedure for restricting access to information, access to which is subject to restriction." Prior to this, this and other social networks were assigned single fines that were not tied to their financial indicators. The amount of the fine in this case is set by the court, it can range from 1/20 to 1/10 of the company's annual revenue.^[12]

Declared bankrupt by the court

On October 18, 2023, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared the Russian representative office of Google bankrupt and appointed the bankruptcy trustee's report on the course of bankruptcy proceedings on April 17, 2024.

The court approved the bankruptcy trustee Valery Talyarovsky from the self-regulatory organization (SRO) of arbitration managers "Interregional Center of Experts and Professional Managers," who had previously been a temporary manager.

According to RIA Novosti, Google did not object to the transition to bankruptcy proceedings, for which the first meeting of creditors voted in August, but Talyarovsky's candidacy as a bankruptcy trustee did not suit him. The debtor asked to appoint a random sample of SROs for the next bankruptcy procedure, but the court rejected this petition.

Talyarovsky at a meeting held on October 18, 2023 said that the amount of claims of creditors of Google LLC included in the register is almost 53.6 billion rubles. A major creditor is also the Tsargrad media holding with claims of about 32.8 billion rubles. However, they are included in the register with a reduced order of satisfaction and do not participate in the voting at the meeting of creditors.

Participants in the first meeting of the company's creditors, which account for 97.2% of the total amount of claims against Google LLC, in August 2023 decided to apply to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a petition to declare the company bankrupt and to open bankruptcy proceedings. According to the minutes of the then meeting of creditors, the total amount of claims of creditors with voting rights included in the register is 20.18 billion rubles. The main part - 19.51 billion rubles - fell on debt to the Federal Tax Service (FTS).^[13]

Blocking accounts of entrepreneurs from Russia for showing ads in other countries

In early September 2023, it became known that Google began blocking the accounts of entrepreneurs from Russia for showing their advertising in other countries. The reason is the current geopolitical situation, as well as sanctions against the Russian Federation by the United States and Europe. Read more here.

Identification of signs of deliberate bankruptcy

The interim manager of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky revealed signs of deliberate bankruptcy in the company. He posted the corresponding notice on Fedresurs in early September 2023.

According to RBC, citing materials from Fedresurs, the manager investigated the company's activities from March 2019 to December 2022. Among other things, it revealed a significant decrease in liquidity of Google LLC, which has been observed since December 2020. According to him, by this time the volume of the company's debt to pay dividends to the founders amounted to 10 million rubles.

At the same time, the debt on the calculations of the parent Google Ireland Limited increased by more than 2 billion rubles. Talyarovsky noted that in general, the debtor's solvency level can be described as "gradually decreasing," which may be due to fines against the company in Russia and a significant drop in revenue starting from the third quarter of 2022.

In addition, Google's subsidiary made write-offs of the value of non-current and current assets, "motivating the decision by the fact that there is uncertainty in the continuity of actions," the manager found out. As a result, this led to a "significant reduction in the value of assets" of the company, through which it could pay off part of the obligations.

Conclusion: signs have been identified that indicate signs of deliberate bankruptcy, - says the notification signed by Talyarovsky. At the same time, there are no objective signs of fictitious bankruptcy, but "there are formal signs of fictitious bankruptcy."

The requirement for Google was presented by more than 1,000 Russian companies. Most of them are related to the non-provision of advertising services.^[14]

Debt to Russian creditors reached 20.1 billion rubles

Google's monetary debt to Russian creditors reached 20.1 billion rubles. This was reported on August 28, 2023 by the TASS agency with reference to materials on the results of the first meeting of creditors.

This event was attended by representatives of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, the Izhevsk Radio Plant, the Alfa Textiles company, the GIS cartographic service, Proxima Technologies and four other organizations. The amount of monetary claims amounted to 97.2% of the total. Creditors intend to petition the Moscow Arbitration Court so that the Google division in the Russian Federation is declared bankrupt and opened bankruptcy proceedings against it.

Since the Russian subsidiary Google expressed its intention to apply to the court for bankruptcy in May 2023, more than 1,000 Russian companies, including VK, 1C-Bitrix, Diasoft and others, have declared their claims against the company by the end of August 2023. Most of the claims are related to the failure to provide advertising services, which Google suspended after filing for bankruptcy, TASS notes.

Earlier in 2023, Google LLC lost all money in its accounts without exception. According to Interfax, this happened in April 2023 - the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia (FSSP) withdrew all the funds remaining from the company.

The money was transferred to a special deposit account of the FSSP as an interim measure against Google in litigation in Russia, into which its Russian representative office was drawn. Information about this is also available in Google's 2022 financial report.

According to the report, by the end of 2022, about 375.5 million rubles were in the company's accounts, and at that time the entire amount was seized. For comparison, a year earlier, Google LLC had 3.09 billion funds and their equivalents, and at the end of 2020 - 11.4 billion rubles at all.^[15]

Fine in the amount of 4 billion rubles

On June 27, 2023, the World Court of the Presnensky District of Moscow ruled against Google to impose a fine of two times the amount of the fine unpaid by the FAS of Russia. This was reported by the press service of the antimonopoly department.

Earlier, the FAS completed the consideration of the antimonopoly case against Google. The service found that the rules related to the formation, suspension, blocking of accounts and circulation of user content on the YouTube platform are opaque, biased and unpredictable. This leads to sudden blocking and deletion of user accounts without warning and justification. FAS Russia found that such behavior infringes on the interests of users, and also limits competition in related markets.

After a comprehensive study of the circumstances of the case, the service commission found the company guilty of abusing its dominant position in the YouTube video hosting services market.

As a result of an administrative investigation, the FAS Russia imposed a negotiable fine on Google in the amount of more than 2 billion rubles for violating antimonopoly laws. The company tried to appeal the decision and order of the service, as well as the decision to impose a fine, but the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal sided with the FAS Russia. Earlier, the decision of the antimonopoly service was also supported by the court of first instance.

At the end of June 2023, the FAS recalled that if, after 60 days from the date of entry into force of the court order, the company does not pay the fine, the department transfers the information to the bailiffs for collection, and the case file to the court for prosecution in double amount.^[16]

Bailiffs withdrawing all money from Russian accounts

The bailiffs withdrew all the money from the accounts of the Russian subsidiary Google. This is stated in the company's 2022 report published in June 2023.

According to Interfax, citing materials from Google LLC, the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP) of the Russian Federation withdrew all funds from the accounts of the Russian legal entity Google in April 2023, they were transferred to the service's deposit account as an interim measure for litigation.

It follows from the report that by December 31, 2022, the balance of cash and its equivalents from Google LLC amounted to 375.5 million rubles against 3.09 billion rubles at the end of 2021 and 11.4 billion rubles at the end of 2020. As of December 31, 2022, the company's cash balance was seized. In 2022, the FSSP wrote off 10.3 billion rubles from the company's accounts.

In May 2023, Google LLC filed four lawsuits with the Moscow Arbitration Court demanding that interim measures be lifted in the form of the arrest of accounts and property of the company in Russia, the court's press service told TASS. Four lawsuits from the company appeared in the file of arbitration cases on May 17, 2023, it filed applications for challenging the decisions, actions (inaction) of the bailiff.

In all claims, the defendant indicated the bailiff Andrei Filatov. In one of the lawsuits, the third person indicated LLC GPM Entertainment Television (a subsidiary of Gazprom-Media), in the other - NTV Television Company JSC, in the third - ANKO TV-Novosti (founder of RT). The press service of the court confirmed to TASS that it had received four lawsuits from Google LLC. The company asks to declare illegal the refusal to satisfy the application to the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP) to remove the arrest from the money and property of Google, the press service of the court noted.^[17]

Debt in the Russian Federation in the amount of 30 billion rubles in fines

Google owes a record 30 billion rubles in fines in Russia. This was announced on May 12, 2023 by the head of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP) Dmitry Aristov on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

According to him, "Google is the largest debtor," but the bailiffs managed to recover a significant part of these funds. By mid-May 2023, the influence of bailiffs on the company is limited, since Google is in bankruptcy, Aristov told Interfax.

But they did not remain unanswered and everything that they had in the Russian Federation, but there were a lot - we took everything and gave it to the state, - said the head of the FSSP.

In addition to Google, fines in administrative cases for failure to remove illegal information were imposed by Telegram, Facebook (the social network belongs to Meta, which is recognized as extremist in Russia and its activities are prohibited), TikTok and other platforms. The amount of fines imposed by the courts on these foreign companies exceeds 200 million rubles, Interfax notes on May 12, 2023. According to Dmitry Aristov, Telegram and Facebook paid off court fines in enforcement proceedings.

The news agency recalls that Google and other Internet resources have previously been repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility for violating Russian law regarding the failure to remove prohibited information. Including companies were fined for failing to provide false information about a special operation in Ukraine, calls for extremism against citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as for promoting non-traditional sexual relations.

According to the information on the FSSP website, by May 12, 2023, there are two cash collection proceedings against Google LLC - in the amount of 100 and 527 thousand rubles.^[18]

A fine of 3 million rubles for non-elimination of fakes about SVO

On May 11, 2023, the magistrate of judicial district No. 422 fined Google 3 million rubles for refusing the company to delete inaccurate information about the conduct of a special military operation (SVO) of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, as well as for promoting non-traditional sexual attitudes and relations. The company was found guilty of non-removal of prohibited content (part 2 of article 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation).

According to "" Interfax with reference to the materials of the case, the reason for the court case was several videos YouTube on containing fakes about SVO, propaganda of non-traditional sexual attitudes and relationships, as well as videos about the so-called ruffers and hookers. The relevant protocols were drawn up by Roskomnadzor in relation to Google after the service did not comply with notifications about the need to delete information based on the requirement, Prosecutor General's Office decisions Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) and decisions of the court.

TASS clarifies that we are talking about two videos: blogger Karen Shainyan about raising children in same-sex families and the publication "Грани.ру" (recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent) about the life of representatives of LGBT communities in St. Petersburg. These videos were discovered by Roskomnadzor, which demanded that Google remove them, but this was not done, the news agency adds.

A Google spokesman asked that the proceedings be dropped. He insisted there was no confirmation in the case file that the company had been notified to remove the videos, and there was a lack of the composition and event of the offence.

Google and its information resources have repeatedly been brought to administrative responsibility for violating Russian law regarding the refusal to delete prohibited information. By May 11, 2023, the total fines against the Russian subsidiary Google exceed 29 billion rubles.^[19]

885 Russian companies joined the lawsuit against Google

885 companies from Russia decided to join the lawsuit against the Russian division of the American corporation Google. Vedomosti writes about this on March 22, 2023 with reference to the materials of the file cabinet of arbitration cases.

According to the newspaper, 66 companies were included in the register of third-stage creditors' claims to Google alone, the amount of their claims is 105 million rubles. The largest creditors are Shkulev Media LLC (with requirements for 31.2 million rubles) and VTB Leasing JSC (24.3 million rubles). The vast majority of the claims are for ad placement services, which Google suspended after filing for bankruptcy. It is noted that organizations cannot withdraw funds from the advertising office.

The claims of the companies are related to the scheme of advance payments under advertising contracts that Google did not work out, confirmed Artur Zurabyan, head of dispute resolution practice at Art de Lex law firm. He noted that the third stage also includes the requirement of Roskomnadzor for 19.6 billion rubles. The representative of the department explained that this is part of the fine, which remains unpaid by Google LLC. He recalled that the amount of fines imposed by the court amounted to 28.3 billion rubles, of which the company paid 62 million voluntarily, and 8.7 billion rubles were forcibly collected by bailiffs.

Oleg Permyakov, partner of Rustam Kurmaev and Partners, noted that the observation procedure was introduced by Google LLC before one of the court fines was issued, which means that it refers to the current debt, which is satisfied with priority. This means that Google LLC must first of all pay a fine, and only then satisfy the claims of creditors. If the company sent the money received in Russia to foreign jurisdictions, for example, the parent company, then it will be very difficult to return them due to sanctions, says Yulia Mikhalchuk, a lawyer and teacher at the Moscow Digital School educational platform.^[20]

In the DPR block Google and Zoom

In mid-February 2023, it became known about the blocking of Google and Zoom services in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). There are also problems in the region with downloading images and videos via Viber. Read more here.

Recovery by the court of a penalty of 100 thousand rubles a day before unblocking the Ren-TV YouTube channel

In February 2023, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google to unblock Ren-TV YouTube channels. Until the company does this, it must pay a penalty of 100 thousand rubles a day.

Google should restore access to nine channels of the television company, including "News," "Documentary," "Military Secret" and "Territory of Delusions." Until the company does this, it will pay a penalty: on the sixth day from the entry into force of the decision - 100 thousand rubles a day. Each week, the fine will double until the total amount of payments is 1 billion rubles. In case of non-execution of the court decision after nine months, the penalty will be charged according to the same formula, but without setting the maximum amount, TASS reports with reference to the materials of the file cabinet of arbitration cases.

Earlier, on similar conditions, the court satisfied the claim of ANO TV-Novosti, the founder of the RT channel, demanding Google to unblock 27 channels on YouTube, and also ordered Google to pay Gazprom Media Holding up to 1 billion rubles if it refuses to unblock the TNT channel. They won a similar court against Google "Channel One" and NTV.

On February 7, 2023, Gazprom-Media Holding, against the background of blocking TNT and NTV channels on YouTube, announced the impossibility of building long-term business relations with Google, which owns the platform.

In March last year, Google illegally blocked TNT and NTV's Gazprom-Media Holding channels on YouTube, and we initiated lawsuits on these facts. It is impossible to build long-term and understandable business relations with a platform that unilaterally terminates them, the press service of the Russian company said in a statement.

The company also said it was interested in attracting content to their Rutube platform. The press service noted that Russian video hosting tripled the audience in just a year and has a debugged monetization system.^[21]

Recovery by the court of 351 million rubles

In early February 2023, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal supported the lower instance, which, at the suit of businessman Roman Abramovich, controlled by Millhouse, ST Balchug (owner of the Balchug Plaza business center), recovered about $5 million from the Russian division of Google (about 351 million rubles at the exchange rate as of February 2, 2023).

The Court of Appeal rejected the complaints of the corporation and its interim manager Valery Talyarovsky against the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court adopted in August 2022. The decision entered into legal force.

The court recovered from Google more than $657 thousand in debt on obligations to pay for the lease of premises, as well as more than $4.3 million in penalties for early termination of the contract. In addition, 1.4 million rubles of debt for utilities were collected from the Russian division.

Google's Russian division has leased about 2.7 thousand square meters in the business center since April 2010. The lease agreement for the company's subsidiary and Balchug Plaza was valid until July 2024. However, the owner of the center terminated the contract unilaterally from June 2022. In May 2022, the company sued and indicated that Google had stopped paying rent since April 1, 2022.

ST Balchug filed a demand for recovery of a penalty for its early termination in August 2022, already during the consideration of the case, specifying the claims. The Russian subsidiary Google asked to leave this part of the claim without consideration due to non-compliance with the claim order, but the court rejected the petition, indicating that "if the plaintiff complies with the pre-trial order in relation to the amount of the principal debt in case of going to court demanding to recover the amount of the principal debt and forfeit, such a procedure is considered observed in relation to both claims."^[22]

2022

Rospatent refused Google to register the Google Orion trademark due to similarities with the brand of the Siberian telecom operator

In November 2022, Rospatent refused Google to register the Google Orion trademark. The department believes that the company did not provide enough arguments to justify the first refusal to trademark a special Google Orion system. Read more here.

Bailiffs opened a case on the forced collection of a fine in the amount of 21 billion rubles

Russian bailiffs opened a case against Google on the forced collection of a revolving fine in the amount of more than 21 billion rubles for repeated refusal to remove unreliable content.

The Moscow court ordered to pay Channel One 100 thousand rubles a day before unlocking its YouTube channel and other projects

In November 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared illegal Google's actions to block YouTube channels of Channel One and other projects of the Russian broadcaster. among which "Evening Urgant," "Let them say," "Live great," "Minute of Glory," etc.

Now the American company is obliged to restore the ability to view the content of these channels. She will have five days, after which, in case of failure to comply with the court order, a court penalty will be collected from Google LLC, as well as from the Irish Google Ireland Limited and the Russian legal entity Google LLC in the total amount of 100 thousand rubles. "for each day of non-execution of the judicial act" starting from the sixth day from the date of entry into force and until the actual execution ("subject to a weekly increase in the amount of the daily accrued penalty twice"). The maximum total amount is not limited.

Channel One went to court in May 2022, after YouTube blocked 54 channels in March. In the Russian MEDIA October 2022 Moscow , a court decision appeared on the website of the Arbitration Court, according to which Google is obliged to pay ₽100 thousand a day until it unlocks the TNT YouTube channel. This amount will double weekly, however, unlike the decision on the claim of Channel One, the total amount of the penalty cannot exceed ₽1 billion within 9 months from the date of entry into force of the judicial act. In both cases, sanctions can only be avoided if YouTube channels are immediately unlocked.

In addition, on October 14, 2022, a similar claim of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company was satisfied. Of all the channels listed in the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, by November 2022, only the Kultura TV channel is available on YouTube. At the same time, the court also seized the property and accounts of the Russian division of Google for a total of 500 million rubles.^[23]

Debts to creditors reached 18.7 billion rubles

The debts of the Russian subsidiary Google to creditors reached 18.7 billion rubles. This was announced on September 19, 2022 by Interfax with reference to the ruling of the Moscow Arbitration Court posted on its website.

The same document says that the receivables of Google LLC amount to 27.025 billion rubles, which is thus 8.3 billion rubles more than the debtor's total monetary obligation to creditors.

The definition also notes that the debtor has 636 thousand rubles in the Citibank account, fixed assets are estimated at 28.5 million rubles, intangible assets - 14 million rubles, inventory - 15.2 million rubles, as well as other assets totaling 3.8 billion rubles.

At the same time, the debt on remuneration of the debtor's employees and payment of severance pay to them is 271.2 million rubles, on mandatory payments - 85.7 million rubles.

On September 12, 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized Google LLC's application for its own bankruptcy as justified and introduced a monitoring procedure against it. Denis Polyychuk was appointed interim manager. The company's bankruptcy case will essentially take place on March 13, 2023.

The representative of the debtor explained the filing for bankruptcy by the fact that at that time the size of the claims of the company's creditors exceeded 19 billion rubles, while the company's assets amounted to only about 3.5 billion rubles. Among the creditors of the company are commercial organizations, the tax authority and employees of the company.

According to the representative of the debtor, the main thing is that all nine accounts of the company in Citibank are arrested. The funds coming to them are also arrested, it was not possible to challenge the arrest of the company's accounts.

At a meeting on September 12, 2022, the debtor supported his statement, creditors did not appear at the meeting, Interfax points out^[24]

The company introduced supervision of bankruptcy proceedings

The Moscow court in September 2022 recognized as justified the application of the Russian subsidiary Google for bankruptcy and introduced observation in it (initial bankruptcy procedure).

Fine of 2 billion rubles

On July 26, 2022, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia announced the imposition of a fine on Google in the amount of 2 billion rubles for the company's abuse of the dominant position of YouTube in terms of blocking accounts. Read more here.

Fine 21 billion rubles for repeated refusal to remove prohibited content

In July 2022, the Russian court imposed a new negotiable fine on Google - more than 21 billion rubles, for repeated refusal to remove prohibited content. In September 2022, the Tagansky Court of Moscow recognized as legal the recovery from Google a fine of 21.7 billion rubles.

Bankruptcy application

On June 16, 2022, Google's Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy.

A fine of 15 million rubles for repeated refusal to localize the data of Russians

On June 16, 2022, the World Court of the Tagansky District of Moscow fined Google 15 million rubles for repeated refusal to localize the data of Russians. The company was found guilty under Part 9 of Art. 13.11 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (repeated failure by the operator when collecting personal data to ensure the recording, systematization, accumulation, storage of personal data of citizens of the Russian Federation using databases located on the territory of the Russian Federation).

As follows from the materials of the case referred to by TASS, in August 2021 Google was already fined 3 million rubles for refusing to localize user data, but almost a year later the company did not eliminate this offense.

As RIA Novosti clarifies, according to the protocol drawn up by Roskomnadzor, Google continues to store personal data using databases located in the United States and the European Union. It is noted that the representative of Google did not appear at the court session.

According to Roskomnadzor, by mid-June 2022, the storage of personal data of Russian users was localized by about 600 representative offices of foreign companies in the Russian Federation. Among them Apple Microsoft are,,,,, and Samsung. PayPal Booking LG

Ivan Samoilenko, managing partner of the B&C Agency communications agency, said that the bankruptcy of the Russian branch of Google, which became known in May 2022, will be the result of the unwillingness of the parent organization to agree with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation. In addition, according to the specialist, the Russian branch of the company simply does not have money to continue working.

As Eldar Murtazin, an analyst at Mobile Research Group, explained in an interview with Izvestia, after recognizing Google's subsidiary in Russia as bankrupt, it will cease to engage in commerce in the country. At the same time, the company's free services will continue to work in Russia.^[25]

The court arrested 1 billion rubles in the accounts of the Russian subsidiary Google in the claims of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company

On June 7, 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court arrested another 1 billion rubles in the accounts of the Russian subsidiary Google in two claims of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. In one of the statements that the television company sent against Google LLC (USA), Google LLC, Google Commerce Limited and Google Ireland Limited, TV presenters Olga Skabeeva, Evgeny Popov and Arkady Mamontov are indicated as third parties. A second lawsuit with the same defendants listed a third party as TV host Vladimir Solovyov.

According to RBC, citing court materials, in both lawsuits the television company demanded to restore access to the blocked VGTRK channels on YouTube and recover the penalty. The court satisfied the demand of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company to take interim measures and seized funds and property of Google LLC in the amount of 500 million rubles for each claim.

At the end of May 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court arrested 500 million rubles in Google accounts according to the statements of the Moscow 24 and Moscow Trust TV channels. Similar measures against Google, in particular, were taken by the Moscow Arbitration Court on the claims of the 360 ​ ​ channel and the ANO TV-Novosti company, the founder of the RT channel .

In mid-March 2022, YouTube announced that it would block channels around the world that are associated with Russian media and receive funding from the state in connection with the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine.

Google is one of numerous companies that have supported anti-Russian sanctions. Her actions against the Russians are expressed, among other things, in removing the applications they need from the catalog of the Google Play store, as well as in disconnecting the servers of the Google Global Cache network, designed to speed up the work of its services in Russia, including the same YouTube.^[26]

Bailiffs recovered from the Google office all 7.7 billion rubles of a revolving fine

The bailiffs recovered from the Russian office of Google all 7.7 billion rubles of a revolving fine, which had previously been imposed by the court. This became known on May 26, 2022.

According to Interfax, citing the database of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), enforcement proceedings to recover 7.2 billion rubles of a revolving fine from Google and 505 million rubles of a performance fee have been terminated. This means that the debt has been repaid, the agency explains.

This fine corresponds to 5% of the annual turnover of the Russian representative office of Google for 2020. Penalties against the company were imposed on the claims of Roskomnadzor. The court found Google guilty of repeated violation of the requirements for deleting information on the Internet. This is the first such fine in Russian practice.

Yuri Fedyukin, managing partner of the law firm Enterprise Legal Solutions, in a conversation with Forbes, noted that by the standards of the Russian IT market, the fine for Google is record, but uncritical on the scale of the company's activities, Fedyukin added.

The giant had the opportunity to calculate the possible consequences of applying a revolving fine to it. Failure to comply with the requirements presented was a deliberate step, therefore, its consequences were already included in the costs associated with work in Russia, he suggested.

With a revolving fine, the Russian authorities have set a "point of no return," in which both the authorities and Google will have to resolve the accumulated disagreements, said German Klimenko, head of the council of the Digital Economy Development Fund.

At the end of April 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court granted the application for seizure of funds, including those that will go to bank accounts, as well as the property of Google LLC. At the same time, the bailiffs opened a case against the company to enforce a fine. Later, a performance fee in the amount of 505.5 million rubles was added to the sanction.^[27]

Google disables servers in Russia used by sanctioned companies

At the end of May 2022, it became known about the start of Google disconnecting some servers in Russia. We are talking about Google Global Cache (GGC) systems, which are used to speed up the download of Google services, including YouTube content. The measures may affect companies that have come under sanctions. Read more here.

Removal of employees from Russia

On May 18, 2022, it became known about the relocation of most of the Google employees working in Russia in other countries. Many of them, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), moved to Dubai, where the American company has a large office.

According to the publication, some employees of the Russian representative office of Google refused the proposal for migration and decided to quit the company. Google will soon no longer have staff in Russia and the company will eventually wind down its commercial operations in the country, according to the publication.

Google LLC began offering employees to move abroad after a court froze the company's main bank account in Russia at the end of March 2022. Then the bailiffs wrote off the money from the account - as a result, the company was left without funds to pay salaries and pay other expenses.

The fact that Google began to secretly take out employees of the Moscow office from the country who agreed to the relocation was reported by Bloomberg in March 2022. According to him, in total, 244 people worked in hybrid mode in the Russian branch of Google in the Balchug Plaza BC in Moscow, some of them worked remotely.

Bloomberg did not specify exactly where Google was transferring its employees, as well as how many of them had already left the Moscow office.

In early May 2022, bailiffs decided to forcibly recover from Google the amount of a fine of 7.2 billion rubles. In addition, several lawsuits were initiated against the Russian subsidiary Google in the arbitration court, the plaintiffs in them are the Russian media, whose accounts on YouTube were blocked.

On May 18, 2022, Kommersant, citing the base of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), reported that the negotiable fine against Google increased by more than 505 billion rubles and exceeded 7.7 billion rubles.^[28]

Start of bankruptcy process

On May 18, 2022, it became known about the beginning of the bankruptcy process of the Russian representative office of Google. This follows from a message published on Fedresurs (Unified Federal Register of Legally Significant Information on the Facts of the Activities of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Other Entities of Economic Activity).

Google LLC asks to include this notice of intention to apply to the arbitration court with an application to declare itself insolvent (bankrupt) in the Unified Federal Register of Information on the Facts of the Activities of Legal Entities, the message says.

The text of the message, published on behalf of the CEO of Google LLC David Munro Sneddon (David Munro Sneddon), states that the company "from March 22, 2022 foresees its own bankruptcy and the impossibility of fulfilling monetary obligations, requirements for the payment of severance pay and (or) on remuneration of persons working or working under an employment contract."

As explained in the company, due to the arrest of its bank account, Google LLC cannot ensure the work of the office.

Some time ago, Google suspended the vast majority of commercial operations in Russia. Today we report that the arrest of the Google Russia bank account made it impossible for our Russian office to function, including the preservation of employees and wages in Russia, payment of suppliers and contractors, as well as the fulfillment of other financial obligations, a company representative told RBC.

According to him, Google will continue to provide users from Russia with free services such as a search engine, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play, etc.

At Google LLC, under the claims of Roskomnadzor, a negotiable fine was imposed in excess of 7.2 billion rubles. The company was found guilty under Part 5 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (a repeated offense related to the failure to delete information by the owner of the resource on the Internet). It was necessary to pay the fine until March 19, 2022. On May 1, 2022, Russian bailiffs opened a case for forced collection of debts from the company.

Bailiffs arrested Google assets in Russia to execute court decisions on disputes with several Russian media holdings and the media. They demanded in court to unlock their Google accounts, including on YouTube video hosting.^[29]

The court arrested Google assets for 500 million rubles at the suit of NTV

In early May 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court arrested funds and property of the Russian division of Google in the amount of 500 million rubles. The reason for this was the lawsuit of the NTV channel, which demanded that the company unblock access to its Google account and to the YouTube channel.

The statement of the joint-stock company "TELEVISION COMPANY NTV" on the adoption of interim measures to satisfy, is indicated in the ruling published in the court file.

The court document says that "funds (including funds that will go to bank accounts), as well as all movable and immovable property owned by Google LLC, are subject to arrest. The defendants in the case are also American Google LLC and Irish Google Ireland Limited.

It is noted that Google LLC has the right to appeal the decision within one month from the date of the decision. On April 25, 2022, the court refused NTV to take interim measures, but later declared this decision invalid.

In mid-March 2022, YouTube announced that it would block worldwide channels related to Russian state-funded media in connection with the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. The accounts of TNT and NTV channels belonging to Gazprom-Media fell under the block.

NTV said its YouTube channels are blocked in more than 70 countries, including all. To Europe The NTV channel on YouTube ranked fifth in terms of the number of views in the Russian-speaking segment of the platform, its audience was almost 17 million people. In 2021, NTV projects on the official NTV channel on a video hosting platform collected 5.2 billion views.^[30]

Seizure of accounts and property worth 0.5 billion rubles

The Moscow Arbitration Court arrested accounts and property of Google LLC in the amount of 500 million rubles at the suit of GPM Entertainment Television LLC (owned by the Gazprom-Media holding). This became known on April 26, 2022 from the file cabinet of arbitration cases.

As Interfax reports with reference to this document, GPM RTV sent a lawsuit to arbitration, in which it asks to invalidate the unilateral refusal of the agreement, to oblige to restore full access to the YouTube account with all functions, as well as to recover the court penalty. The defendants in the lawsuit are, in addition to Google LLC, also Google Ireland Ltd, Google LLC and Google Commerce Ltd.

At the same time, an application was filed for seizure of funds, as well as all movable and immovable property of Google LLC for 1 billion rubles. Later, the amount was halved. The court granted the application.

{{quote 'Based on the above, guided by Art. 90-93, 184, 185, 199 of the APK of the Russian Federation, the court determined: The statement of the Limited Liability Company "GPM Entertainment Television" on the adoption of interim measures - to satisfy. To take interim measures in the form of seizure of funds (including funds that will go to bank accounts), as well as all movable and immovable property owned by Google LLC (OGRN: 1057749528100, TIN/KPP 7704582421/770501001), for a total amount of 500 000 000 rubles - indicated in the court ruling. }} Earlier, in March 2022, YouTube announced that it had begun blocking Russian media channels funded by the state. The platform linked this decision to the Russian special operation in Ukraine. The blocking, in particular, fell on the TNT channel, which is managed by GPM Entertainment Television.

On April 25, 2022, Roskomnadzor announced that Google was fined a total of 7 billion rubles for not removing content banned in Russia on the YouTube platform. Such figures were named by the deputy head of the RKN Vadim Subbotin.^[31]

A fine of 11 million rubles for non-deletion of prohibited information

On April 21, 2022, the world judicial district No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow fined Google 11 million rubles for failing to remove fakes about the Russian special operation in Ukraine. The company has been punished in two administrative cases.

According to TASS, citing the materials of the case, the videos posted on YouTube contained inaccurate data on the alleged interceptions of telephone conversations between the Russian military and relatives by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), where they report heavy losses, as well as videos with information about the executions of the retreating troops of the Russian Federation by barrage detachments. The court found Google guilty under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (Failure of information prohibited in the Russian Federation) and wrote her a fine of 4 million rubles.

In addition, the company will have to pay another 7 million rubles for the distribution on YouTube of propaganda materials of the Ukrainian Azov regiment and the Ukrainian neo-Nazi group Right Sector (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation), as well as other prohibited organizations.

Шаблон:Quote 'The court decided to find Google guilty under Part 4 of Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation Failure by the owner of the site to provide information calling for extremist activities, his decision says. Roskomnadzor The judge said he sent Google five notices at the end of March, where he demanded that the inappropriate content be removed. In particular, it was about fakes in YouTube videos. The company ignored all notifications, so on April 14, 2022, Roskomnadzor drew up and sent a protocol to the court.

This is Google's first fine under the new fake law. Earlier, a similar decision to recover a fine of 2 billion rubles. was accepted against Meta (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) also for repeated failure to remove content banned in Russia.^[32]

Roskomnadzor introduces a ban on the distribution of Google ads

For numerous violations, the American IT Google LLC Russian Roskomnadzor decided to introduce measures of informative and economic coercion. This became known on April 7, 2022.

In particular, the following measures will be applied to Google and its information resources:

• informing search engines Internet users about violation by a foreign person of Russian legislation;
• a ban on the distribution of Google LLC ads and its information resources as a subject of advertising.

YouTube video hosting has become one of the key platforms spreading fakes about the progress of a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In addition, YouTube is not fighting the spread of information from extremist organizations such as Right Sector and the Azov nationalist regiment. At the beginning of April 2022, over 12 thousand of this kind of prohibited materials remained undeleted.

Also, since April 2020, about 60 incidents have been identified related to discrimination against YouTube video hosting of the content of Russian media, state, public and sports organizations and figures. In particular, the blocking of accounts or content of the news agencies Russia Today, Russia 24, Sputnik, Zvezda, RBC, NTV and many others was revealed.

The listed measures of an informative and economic nature against the American Internet company Google LLC will be valid until the foreign person completely eliminates violations of Russian legislation^[33].

TV channel "Tsargrad" received 1 billion rubles of penalties from Google in the case of blocking the YouTube channel

On April 1, 2022, the Tsargrad TV channel announced that it had received 1 billion rubles in penalties from Google in the case of blocking the YouTube channel. The funds listed will be used to support Russia in a special operation in Ukraine. Read more here.

The Union of Journalists of Russia demands to "take action" against Google and Youtube

The Union of Journalists of Russia intends to appeal to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Prosecutor General's Office and Roskomnadzor with a request to take measures against Google and YouTube due to censorship. This became known on March 24, 2022 from the words of the head of the SJR Vladimir Solovyov. Read more here.

Google secretly takes its employees out of Russia

Google Corporation has begun to export its employees from Russia. This became known on March 23, 2022. Google has an office in Moscow, in which 244 people worked in the DPR and LPR before the start of the special operation.

As of March 23, it was not reliably known exactly how many people working for Google left the country, but according to the source, the corporation actively contributed to the relocation of those who expressed a desire to leave Russia.

The capital's (and the only one in Russia) Google office is still working. Now it is one of the few foreign companies that continue to operate in Russia, despite constantly growing sanctions.

Russian Google employees have recently feared that Google's business in the country is in danger. In their opinion, in the near future it may be banned against the background of how the company blocks Russian official channels on YouTube one by one.

They also claim that video hosting for March 2022 is a source of "serious tension with the Russian authorities."

It remains unknown to which country in the world Google is transporting employees of its Russian office. Meanwhile, a similar situation is unfolding in Ukraine. According to the source, the Kyiv office of Google is also gradually being disbanded, and its employees are being taken out of the country by the corporation. Before the start of the special operation, about 50 people worked in the Ukrainian office of Google. How many of them have already left the country, and how many are just going to do it, Google does not report^[34].

A fine of 4 million rubles for non-deletion of prohibited information

On January 17, 2022, the Moscow Magistrate's Court fined Google another 4 million rubles for refusing to remove content banned in Russia. For the company, this is the fourth fine for this offense.

Google LLC was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 2.1 of Article 13.40 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation [Repeated commission of an administrative offense related to the failure by the operator of the search engine to terminate the issuance of information about information resources at the request of users on the territory of the Russian Federation, access to which is limited in Russia; a fine for this violation in accordance with the law - from 1.5 million to 5 million rubles], the court said, without specifying for the failure of which content the company was punished.

The corresponding decision was made by the magistrate of the judicial district N422 Tagansky district.

Roskomnadzor In indicate that, according to the current legislation, search engines operators are obliged to exclude links to Internet pages with prohibited information from the results of search results. To do this, they must connect to the Federal state Information System (FGIS) containing a list of such pages. At the same time, Google representatives have repeatedly explained these requirements.

On January 12, 2021, it became known that Google, Facebook (Meta Platforms) and WhatsApp paid multimillion-dollar fines imposed for violating the law on the localization of Russian data. According to Roskomnadzor, the amount of fines paid amounted to 22 million rubles.

The first deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee on constitutional legislation, Irina Rukavishnikova, in an interview with Izvestia, called these fines forced. According to her, earlier IT giants were assigned the usual fixed fines, which companies paid and continued to violate Russian laws.^[35]

2021

Negotiable fine of 7.2 billion rubles for refusing to remove prohibited content

On December 24, 2021, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow fined Google 7.2 billion rubles for refusing to remove content prohibited in the Russian Federation. This is the first foreign IT company to receive a negotiable fine in Russia.

Google was found guilty of violating part 5 of article 13.41 of the administrative code (repeated violation of the procedure for restricting access to information prohibited in Russia). The article provides for punishment in the form of a fine in the amount of 5% to 10% of the company's revenue in Russia for the previous year. The amount of Google's fine was calculated by the judge based on the data presented to the court by Roskomnadzor on the amount of the company's annual revenue , an informed source explained to Interfax. According to Google, the turnover of the Russian representative office of the company at the end of 2020 exceeded 85 billion rubles.

We will study the court's decision and then determine the next steps, - said the press services of Google, commenting on the decision of the Moscow court on the reverse fine.

According to TASS in Roskomnadzor, since the beginning of 2021, 16 protocols have been drawn up against Google for the systematic failure to remove information prohibited in the Russian Federation. The amount of the fine in this case is established by the court.

As  of October 2021, the company did not remove about 2.6 thousand materials. For this, she was brought to administrative responsibility for 37.5 million rubles. In mid-October, Google announced that it had paid all fines in Russia, the decisions on which came into force. At the same time, the total amount in the company was not named.

The head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, Alexander Khinshtein, did not rule out the use of coercive measures against Google in the form of blockages and traffic slowdown in case of non-payment of a revolving fine in the amount of 7.2 billion rubles.^[36]

The court ordered Google to unlock the YouTube channel "Tsargrad"

On December 16, 2021, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal confirmed the conclusions of the city arbitration court Moscow about the illegality of the group's actions Google to disable the account and YouTube channel. " Tsargrad The judges demanded to unlock the channel and return the monetization of advertising. More. here

Fine of 14 million rubles

On December 7, 2021, the World Judicial District of the Tagansky District fined Google a total of 14 million rubles. Monetary penalties are associated with the company's refusal to remove content prohibited in Russia (parts 4 and 2 of article 13.41 of the Administrative Code).

We are talking about non-deleted calls for extremist activities, materials with pornographic images of minors and announcements about the involvement of minors as performers to participate in entertainment events of a pornographic nature, information about the methods, methods of development, manufacture and use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances, places of their acquisition, methods and places of cultivation of narcotic plants. What kind of content on Google was fined is not specified. On average, Google does not remove up to 30% of "dangerous" content from search results, previously reported in. Roskomnadzor

For two episodes, fines against Google amounted to 5 million rubles, for the other two - 2 million rubles in the amount. The total amount of Google fines in Russia as of December 7, 2021 is 58 million rubles, of which 31.5 million rubles under 13 decrees have not yet been paid.

In total, according to the protocols of Google considered on December 7, 2021, up to 16 million fines were threatened, press secretary of the Tagansky Court of Moscow Zulfiya Gurinchuk told Interfax.

In early December 2021, Roskomnadzor initiated the process of collecting negotiable fines from Facebook and Google for non-removal of prohibited content. The regulator transferred both administrative cases against American corporations to the judicial district of the magistrate No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow. They were instituted under Part 5 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation due to the repeated refusal of Google and Facebook to remove the "ban."^[37]

Fine of 3 million rubles

On November 29, 2021, the World Judicial District No. 422 of the Tagansky District of Moscow fined Google another 3 million rubles for refusing to remove content prohibited by Russian law. The company was found guilty under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (failure by the owner of the site to delete information if the obligation to delete it is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation).

Taking into account this court decision, Google has already been fined 44 million rubles for administrative offenses in the Russian Federation in the field of storage and dissemination of information, TASS notes.

Roskomnadzor previously announced that it intends to recover negotiable fines from the company through the court for repeated failure to remove prohibited information. According to the deputy head of the department Vadim Subbotin, we can talk about the share of the fine from 1/20 to 1/10 of the annual revenue, but the court will decide on the amount.

Director of the Safe Internet League Ekaterina Mizulina says that Google's revenue in Russia in 2020 amounted to about 220 billion rubles, including the sale of software and advertising revenues, for all subsidiaries of Google LLC, including Google Rus LLC. Thus, the fine may range from 14 to 22 billion rubles (depending on the accounting of the revenue of Google Rus LLC), she noted.

On November 1, 2021, Roskomnadzor announced that Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Google, TikTok, Odnoklassniki and VKontakte were fined 187 million rubles this year for non-deletion of prohibited information.

On November 23, 2021, the Moscow Magistrate's Court reported that the social network Twitter, as well as Meta (Facebook) and the Google search engine, face multimillion-dollar fines in Russia for non-removal of content banned in the Russian Federation. So, Twitter may face a fine of 12 million rubles, Google - 16 million rubles, and Meta - 20 million rubles.^[38]

A fine of 2 million rubles for refusing to remove content prohibited in the Russian Federation

According to the decision issued on November 8, 2021 by the magistrate of the judicial district No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow, Google will have to pay another 2 million rubles for refusing to remove content prohibited by Russian laws. The company was found guilty of an offense under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation ("Failure by the owner of an information resource on the Internet, if the obligation to delete it is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation").

The court on November 8, 2021 planned to consider two more protocols against Google, but the meeting was postponed for 21 days. Since the beginning of 2021, the company has received fines in Russia totaling 32.5 million rubles.

Earlier, the head of State Dumas the Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, Vasily Piskarev, said that Google, as of early October 2021, had not removed more than 2.6 thousand materials with prohibited information, of which 2.5 thousand materials were from the video service owned by the company. YouTube

The deputy recalled that at the time of the meeting with the leadership of Google in April 2021, the total amount of such content exceeded 5.7 thousand materials, "the work was carried out, but the ideal is still very far away."

According to Piskarev, among the non-deleted illegal content are calls for suicide, drug propaganda, videos aimed at involving minors in illegal actions, extremist information and a "huge amount" of materials with illegal calls for mass events and riots, materials of unwanted organizations in the Russian Federation, insulting state symbols, fakes.

The deputy head of Roskomnadzor Vadim Subbotin earlier in 2021 announced the intention of the department through the court to collect negotiable fines from Google for repeated failure to remove prohibited information.^[39]

A fine of 6.5 million rubles for non-removal of prohibited content

On September 29, 2021, the Moscow Magistrate's Court for the Tagansky District fined Google another 6.5 million rubles for the company's refusal to remove content prohibited by Russian law. The ruling was made in two administrative cases. According to one of the protocols, Google received a fine of 2.5 million rubles, according to the second - 4 million rubles.

According to Interfax, the total amount of the fine imposed on Google in Russia from the beginning of 2021 to September 29 reached 39 million rubles. Moreover, the company paid only 3.5 million rubles, according to Roskomnadzor. Earlier, the press service of the Tagansky court said that of foreign companies, only Google and TikTok pay Russian fines on a voluntary basis.

The court postponed another protocol for a similar offense to November 8 due to the fact that Google was given time to familiarize itself with the case file. The company is charged with committing an offense under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation ("failure by the owner of an information resource on the Internet to remove information if the obligation to delete it is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation). The punishment for legal entities for this offense provides for a fine of 800 to 4 million rubles.

At the end of August, the press service of Roskomnadzor clarified that this year the department submitted to the court 15 administrative protocols on Google violations. The court considered 13 cases in which he fined the company 32.5 million rubles.

According to the head of Roskomnadzor, Andrei Lipov, he said that the department has changed tactics and will not slow down other services in Russia, such as Google and Facebook, as it did with Twitter for not removing content banned in the Russian Federation. The regulator believes that the best measures to force these companies to comply with Russian laws are multimillion-dollar fines.^[40]

Bailiffs came to Google's office in Moscow

On September 13, 2021, Google To Moscow bailiffs came to the Russian office located in the Balchug Plaza business center in. Writes about this "" Kommersant with reference to an informed source.

According to the Telegram channel Mash, bailiffs found one employee at the reception in the office. The girl on the speakerphone called the company's lawyer, who explained that the office of Google LLC, and not the parent Google LLC, was located in Moscow. In this regard, bailiffs can only be provided with documents related to the activities of the Moscow office of Google, the lawyer said.

If the documents relate to Google LLC, this company is located in the United States and, according to the Internal Revenue Service, it has no branches in Russia, the lawyer added. Mash posted a Telegram video taken from the office.

Google declined to comment on this information. According to data published on the company's website, its office in Moscow is located at 7 Balchuga.

Kommersant reports that by mid-September 2021, the total amount of Google fines in Russia exceeds 32 million. rubles The company received them, among other things, for refusing to remove content prohibited in Russia under Part 2 and Part 4 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (failure by the owner of an information resource in the network of Internet information, if the obligation to remove it is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation). A meeting on a new fine under this article in the amount of 4 million rubles will be held in the magistrate's Moscow court on September 29, 2021.

The most resonant court case involving Google remains the company's proceedings with the Tsargrad TV channel after blocking its account on video hosting. YouTube The YouTube channel Tsargrad was blocked because Konstantin Malofeev sanctions were imposed against the owner of the media resource in the United States.^[41]

Fine for improper advertising from the FAS

On September 7, 2021, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia announced the imposition of a fine on Google. The company has been punished for distributing inappropriate advertising.

For a violation of the advertising legislation, Google LLC was brought to administrative responsibility in the form of a fine of 200,000 rubles, the press service of the Moscow FAS department reports. The agency recognized Google LLC as a violator of the law "On Advertising" when distributing advertising to a financial company operating in the Russian Federation without a license in the Google AdWords system.

According to the regulator, Google, through the AdWords service, distributed advertising of services for the provision of information from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, while this service is provided by Rosreestr, is state-owned and its provision is not provided for by other persons.

We take complaints about advertising of organizations that operate without an appropriate license quite seriously, especially if it concerns financial services and can directly affect the well-being of citizens, "says Ekaterina Solovyova, head of the Moscow OFAS of Russia. - We always urge consumers to be as careful as possible when choosing the company to which they are going to give their money and be very careful about advertisements, including on the Internet, promising large and fast earnings.

The antimonopoly regulator recalled that for the company this is the fifth fine for violating advertising legislation in 2021. Google was fined a total of 800,000 rubles four times and has already paid this amount.

Earlier, the FAS decided to check the actions of Google and other search engines in the framework of the case initiated by the service against Yandex. The reason for the initiation of the case was Yandex's failure to comply with the order to stop discrimination in the Internet search market. The FAS believes that the search engine provides an advantage in promoting services in its search engine that are part of the Yandex group^[42]

A fine of 4 million rubles for refusing to delete prohibited information

On August 17, 2021, the Magistrate's Court in Moscow fined Google 4 million rubles for refusing to remove content banned in Russia. The company was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, TASS reports with reference to the press service of the court.

This is the first protocol of five new ones. Four of them are associated with the failure to remove prohibited content (part 2 of article 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation), one - with the failure to delete information or an Internet page containing calls for extremist activity (part 4 of the same article).

Earlier in 2021, according to three similar protocols, the company was fined 6 million rubles. Another 3.5 million rubles were collected from Google for repeated refusal to stop issuing links at the request of users who contain information about resources to which access is limited in Russia (part 2 of article 13.40 of the Administrative Code).

In August 2021, Google warned that "clear public legal risks for the Russian Federation as a whole" entail negative consequences for the company. These consequences can "jeopardize" the implementation by the American corporation of the federal law "On Information": Google may stop removing links to materials blocked in Russia from search results. This is stated in the appeal, which Google filed in a Russian court in response to the lawsuit of the Tsargrad TV channel.

Earlier, Google blocked the Tsargrad YouTube account due to the fact that its founder Konstantin Malofeev is on the US sanctions lists. According to Forbes estimates, if YouTube does not unlock the channel, then Google's fines will reach 94 trillion rubles within seven months.

At the end of April 2021, the court declared the blocking of the YouTube channel illegal and demanded to ensure access to it. The case file states that Google did not explain the reasons for the blocking.^[43]

Launch of the second season of the business acceleration program in conjunction with My.Games

My.Games Venture Capital (MGVC) Google and announced the launch of the second season of a joint business acceleration program for developers. mobile games More. here

A fine of 3 million rubles for refusing to localize user data in Russia

On July 29, 2021, the magistrate of the judicial district No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow fined Google 3 million rubles for refusing to localize the data of its users in Russia.

According to TASS, citing the press service of the court, a fine was issued in the case of an administrative offense under Part 8 of Art. 13.11 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of personal data").

The agency notes that Google was first punished for refusing to localize the databases of Russian users in the Russian Federation. Earlier, the court fined Google for refusing to delete prohibited information.

In June 2021, Roskomnadzor reminded Google of the need to localize the data of Russians. The regulator stressed that they had drawn up an administrative protocol against the company. At the end of May 2021, the head of Roskomnadzor, Andrei Lipov, allowed the traffic of Google services to slow down if threats from them exceed the benefits.

Roskomnadzor also issued an ultimatum to foreign social networks, obliging them to localize the databases of personal data of Russian users by July 1, 2021. According to Russian law, sites processing personal data of Russians must store them in the country.

According to Russian law, foreign companies face a fine of 1 million to 6 million rubles for failure to comply with this requirement. In case of a repeated violation, the amount increases to 6-18 million rubles.

In addition, there is a law obliging foreign IT companies with a daily audience in the Russian Federation from 500 thousand people to open their branches in the country. If companies do not comply with this requirement, they, in particular, may be prohibited from distributing advertising, as well as collecting personal data.^[44]

A fine of 4 million rubles for refusing to remove prohibited content

On May 25, 2021, the world court of the Tagansky district of Moscow imposed a fine on Google in the amount of 4 million rubles for refusing to delete information prohibited in Russia.

According to TASS, citing the press service of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow, Google was found guilty of an administrative offense, which is provided for in part 2 of article 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

She was sentenced to an administrative fine of two million rubles. The company was also found guilty of committing another administrative offense under the same article, for which it was sentenced to another fine of two million rubles, the court said.

On May 24, 2021, Roskomnadzor warned of possible new fines for Google due to the fact that the company continues to issue links to content banned in Russia. According to the agency, the company does not remove from 20% to 30% of links to the sites of terrorist and extremist organizations, resources with pornographic images of minors, online stores for the sale of narcotic drugs. In addition, according to the regulator's statement, about 5 thousand videos containing calls for participation in unauthorized actions remain on YouTube video hosting.

Roskomnadzor gave Google a day to remove such materials, threatening with a fine in case of unwillingness to cooperate. A fine of 4 million rubles is the maximum amount announced by Roskomnadzor.

Roskomnadzor allowed a slowdown in the traffic of Google services, as was previously done in relation to the social network Twitter. Karen Ghazaryan, general director of the Institute for Internet Research, said in a conversation with Kommersant that Roskomnadzor does not have the technical resources to slow down Google's services.

Firstly, Google has GGC servers (Google Global Cache - a software and hardware complex designed to optimize the load on the power of the Internet provider when working with Google services) inside the networks of telecom operators, and secondly, a much more complex and distributed traffic delivery system with much more serious than Twitter, protection against interference, - he said.[45][46]

Filing a lawsuit against Roskomnadzor

In May 2021, Google filed its first lawsuit against Roskomnadzor. The American company is trying to challenge the department's requirements to remove 12 links to "illegal content" posted on YouTube.

Roskomnadzor explained to Kommersant that the department, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, sent a notice to the company's administration to restrict access to materials "with calls, including for minors, to participate in unauthorized rallies in January 2021."

According to lawyers interviewed by the newspaper, the appeal to the court on behalf of the parent company Google LLC, and not the Russian division of Google, is associated with increased pressure on foreign Internet companies by the Russian authorities. In addition, this will give Google the opportunity to challenge the decisions of the Russian court in international instances. However, if Roskomnadzor and the court nevertheless recognize the controversial videos as illegal, Google faces a fine of up to 8 million rubles for their failure, said Efim Kazantsev, an expert at Moscow Digital School.

By May 24, 2021, the Moscow court has 9 protocols on offenses due to Google's inaction to remove content prohibited in the Russian Federation. 9 administrative cases were opened on them. The fine in one case can be from 800 thousand to 4 million rubles. The maximum total amount of fines in all cases can be up to 40 million rubles.

According to Kirill Nikitin, head of the directorate of the Vegas Lex law firm, Google is rarely involved in court cases in Russia. Kommersant's interlocutors associate the unexpected appeal of the company itself to the court with increased pressure from the authorities.

Recently, government agencies have stepped up with demands to remove content from Google sites, and the list is constantly expanding, so the company has to respond by defending its interests, "said Ekaterina Abashina, a lawyer at Roskomsvoboda.[47]

Google LLC faces a fine close to the size of Russia's GDP

Due to the decision to block the YouTube channel "Tsargrad" Statadina Malofeeva LLC "Google" faces a fine close to the size of Russia's GDP. About 94 trillion rubles, or $1.3 trillion, the Russian subsidiary of the American Internet giant will have to pay for seven months of delay in the execution of the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, according to the calculations of the law firm Baker & McKenzie, which acted as a Google partner in the proceedings.

Moscow arbitration at the end of April satisfied the claim of NAO Tsargrad Media against Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC to declare blocking the YouTube channel illegal. "Tsargrad" also demanded to restore the channel and reimburse the money lost due to its removal from the monetization of content.

The court agreed with these requirements and imposed a penalty of 100 thousand rubles for each day of non-execution of the judicial act, starting from the fifth day after the entry into force of the decision. At the same time, the amount of the fine is doubled weekly if the company refuses to restore access to the Tsargrad TV account. So far, fines have not been collected: Google has the opportunity to appeal. If this is not done by May 20, the court decision will enter into legal force.

In seven months (about so much has passed from the blocking of the channel to the court decision), the amount of the penalty will increase to a size comparable to the capitalization of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, lawyers calculated. It costs $1.57 trillion, or 117 trillion rubles. Russia's GDP is 110 trillion rubles, or $1.48 trillion.

The lawsuit against Google is the first case of the Lugovoi Law, which allows sanctioned individuals and companies to transfer their litigation to Russia.

Google agreed to remove all illegal content

The company is ready to continue working in the domestic legal field and notes the importance of the Russian audience, the State Duma of the Russian Federation reported in April 2021.

Representatives of the company Google expressed their intention to cooperate with the Russian authorities. In this regard, in the near future, all illegal content will be removed.

As the head of the Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia Vasily Piskarev noted: "They showed great interest in our partnership. They noted that Russia plays a large role for Google, they do not want to lose an audience of about 80 million daily visits. " It was about the company's YouTube service.

At the same time, the company previously did not pay very much attention to the requirements of Russia. However, after the "indicative flogging" of Twitter, first TikTok, and then the much more powerful Google began to talk about cooperation and readiness to remove illegal content.

2020

Google received a record fine for the company in Russia

On December 17, 2020, Google received a record fine for the company in Russia. The Moscow Magistrate's Court found the Internet giant guilty of committing a second offense related to insufficient filtering of search results from content banned in the Russian Federation.

By the decision of the magistrate of the judicial district No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow, Google LLC was found guilty of committing an administrative offense, Google LLC was sentenced to an administrative fine of 3 million rubles, - said the press secretary of the court Zulfiya Gurinchuk (quoted by Interfax).

The company was found guilty under part 2.1 of article 13.40 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (repeated commission of an administrative offense for non-fulfillment of duties by a search engine operator), which provides for a fine of 1.5 to 5 million rubles.

Google is fined for the fourth time in Russia for refusing a company to filter search results by 100% in accordance with the register of prohibited information of Roskomnadzor.

Earlier, Roskomnadzor opened administrative proceedings against Google, since the company did not submit objections to the act drawn up by the department on the fact of failure to remove Internet resources with prohibited information from search results.

According to Roskomnadzor, on average, Google does not remove up to 30% of "dangerous" content from search results. Among them are sites with extremist, pornographic, suicidal content.

Roskomnadzor announced on December 17, 2020 that the departments will continue to monitor the compliance of search engines with the requirements for filtering content prohibited in Russia.

Earlier, information about Internet resources, access to which is limited on the territory of the Russian Federation, was found in Google's search results. Among them are sites with extremist, pornographic, suicidal content, the department said.^[48]

Roskomnadzor's demand to lift the restriction on Anna News

Roskomnadzor asks IT-company to create domestic video hosting for. the Russian MEDIA This became known on November 28, 2020.

A targeted censorship policy against the Russian media is unacceptable and violates the key principles of free dissemination of information and unhindered access to it. We demand that all restrictions on access to Anna News YouTube channels be lifted as soon as possible, the press service said.

Read more here.

A fine of 1.5 million rubles for insufficient filtering of content prohibited in the Russian Federation

On September 2, 2020, it became known that Google paid a fine of 1.5 million rubles for a repeated violation related to insufficient filtering of content banned in Russia. The company was fined for not excluding links to Internet pages with prohibited information from the search results.

The fine was imposed by the magistrate's court of the Tagansky district of Moscow. The decree entered into force on August 7, the deadline for paying fines expired on September 4. By August 2, 2020, the court received a check for payment of the entire amount, as reported in the press service of the court without specifying details.

The fine was imposed after in early July 2020, Roskomnadzor drew up a protocol on an administrative offense against Google for insufficient measures to exclude prohibited content from search results. According to the agency, Google selectively filters search results, and more than a third of links from the unified register of prohibited information are stored in the search.

Earlier, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia found Google guilty of violating the Russian advertising law. As reported on the agency's website, the advertising network Google AdWords allowed the distribution of contextual advertising for writing theses. The regulator opened a case against Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and the Russian Google LLC.

Russian legislation prohibits any advertising of services for writing course, diploma and other works, one way or another related to the current Russian education system, since November 2018. This also includes dissertations, doctoral and other types of scientific works for intermediate or final certification, and this is stated in paragraph 10 of Article 7 of the Federal Law "On Advertising."^[49]

Moscow court fined Google for refusing to filter links to banned sites

On August 10, 2020, the magistrate of the judicial district of the Tagansky district of Moscow fined Google 1.5 million rubles for refusing to filter links to prohibited sites. The company was found guilty under Part 2.1 of Art. 13.40 of the Administrative Code (repeated failure to fulfill duties by the operator of the search engine). 

The maximum fine for such a violation amounts to 5 million rubles, the minimum - 1.5 million rubles. Thus, Google received a minimum administrative fine for a repeated violation related to the display of content prohibited in Russia in search results. Moreover, this is the third fine for the company in Russia: the size of the previous two was 500 and 700 thousand rubles.

According to Roskomnadzor, Google selectively filters search results, which still stores about a third of links to  information prohibited in Russia.

As explained in court, the decision was adopted by the magistrate on March 25 and July 7, 2020 entered into force, becoming mandatory. The press secretary of the court, Zulfiya Gurinchuk, in a conversation with Interfax, noted that there is no information about voluntary payment of the fine in the case file. At the same time, the term of voluntary payment of the fine expires on September 4.

By August 2020, Russia has a law according to which search engine operators must exclude links to pages with prohibited content from search results. To do this, they need to connect to the Federal State Information System containing a list of such Internet resources.

In August 2020, the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov , threatened top Google managers with the seizure of their assets in Russia. According to the head of the faction, such sanctions should be introduced in response to the blocking of the Tsargrad TV channel account on YouTube.^[50]

Account blocking by the Federal Internal Revenue Service

On February 9, 2020, the Moscow Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) suspended operations on the account of the Russian representative office of Google in Citibank. This became known on February 27.

According to the Bankinform database, which informs banks about the state of processing electronic documents of the Federal Tax Service, "there are no valid decisions on suspension for the specified taxpayer."

Everyone will unlock soon, this does not affect operational activities in any way, "a source close to the Russian division of Google told Interfax.

According to the Tax Code, suspension of account transactions means termination by the bank of all expenditure transactions in this account. This kind of action is used to enforce the decision to collect tax, collection, insurance premiums, penalties and fines.

According to Kommersant, citing data from the Federal Bailiff Service, two enforcement proceedings were opened against Google LLC on September 25 and November 20 for a total of 4.1 thousand rubles. One thing is about the payment of the state duty awarded by the court, the second proceeding refers to "non-property penalties not in the budgets of the Russian Federation."

At the same time, according to the database of the Federal Tax Service, Google LLC does not have tax debts exceeding 1000 rubles. LLC was registered in 2005.

On February 28, 2020, restrictions on transactions on the account of the Russian office of Google were lifted. As RBC was told in the press service of the Federal Tax Service, the organization's debt has been "settled." The incident was called a "technical error." The company's Russian press service declined to comment.

There are currently no suspensions of account transactions, the FTS said.[51] of Google LLC

David Munro Sneddon is the new CEO of Google's Russian office

On February 14, 2020, it became known about the appointment of David Munro Sneddon to the post of CEO of the Russian representative office of Google. Before heading Google LLC, he led Google the Technical Solutions division in the region EMEA (, Middle Europe East and). Africa More. here

2019

Google fined 700 thousand rubles for non-compliance with Russian legislation

As it became known on July 19, 2019, the Roskomnadzor Office for the Central Federal District considered the case of an administrative offense against the company. As a Google result, Google was fined 700 thousand rubles. for non-compliance with Russian the law.

The company did not comply with the requirements of the Law "On Information"... to exclude from the results of search results links to Internet resources with illegal information, access to which is limited in Russia. The control measure recorded that Google selectively filters search results - more than a third of the links from the unified register of prohibited information are stored in the search, Roskomnadzor (RKN) said.

According to Russian law, search engines operators are obliged to exclude links to Internet pages with prohibited information from the search results. To do this, they must connect to the federal state information system containing a list of such pages. According to Roskomnadzor, Google representatives have repeatedly explained these requirements of the law.

In this case, as far as I understand, Google connected to the information system with the register of prohibited sites, but actually did not fulfill its obligation to exclude the sites specified in it from issuing. Ch.2 Article 13.40 of the Administrative Code provides for liability for this violation - failure by the operator of the search engine to terminate the issuance of information about information resources on the territory of the Russian Federation at the request of users of the specified search engine, information and telecommunication networks, access to which is restricted on the territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on information, information technologies and information protection, entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of 3,000 rubles. up to 5,000 rubles, for officials - from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 500 thousand to 700 thousand rubles. Accordingly, a protocol will be drawn up for each fact of violation and Google will be fined. The Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" of 27.07.2006 No. 149-FZ (article 15.8) does not provide for any special sanctions against the search engine operator for violating the requirements for restricting issuance. Accordingly, Roskomnadzor will continue to fine. Failure to pay the fine within 60 days after the entry into force of the resolution on its imposition is fraught with liability under Article 20.25 of the Administrative Code - the imposition of a fine in double amount. It seems to me that there is no point in appealing: most likely, the evidence base - the presence of a prohibited site in the issuance - obviously indicates this offense, - lawyer Alexander Titov shared his opinion[52] correspondent[53]

Google began to remove sites banned in Russia from search

Google began removing links to sites banned in Russia from search results, including web resources with unlicensed content. The list of such sites, access to which Russian providers are obliged to restrict, is maintained by Roskomnadzor. In addition to pirated ones, sites with calls for extremism, propaganda of suicide and containing pornography fall into it.

At the same time, as Google told Vedomosti[1], a source in Roskomnadzor^[54], Google is now removing not all links from the registry, but about 70% of them. An anonymous source close to Google explained this by the fact that the company is studying the grounds for which this or that site is recognized as prohibited. In addition, Google, unlike Yandex, did not connect to the registry directly, but agreed with Roskomnadzor that the regulator send him an updated list of sites banned in Russia every day.

2018: RKN opened an administrative case against Google, issued a fine and is preparing to block the search engine

The Office of Roskomnadzor for the Central Federal District opened an administrative case against Google in November 2018 due to the fact that the search engine does not comply with the rule on filtering information prohibited in Russia. This was reported on the ILV website^[55] up].

As noted in the message, Russian legislation obliges search engines operators to exclude links to resources with illegal information from the search results. To do this, they must connect to the federal state information system containing a list of prohibited Internet resources. However, Roskomnadzor found that Google did not connect to this system.

In December, Roskomnadzor imposed a fine on Google in the amount of 500 thousand rubles. for the fact that the company did not connect to the Federal State Information System (FGIS) in order to filter search results, as provided for by Russian law. TASS writes about this in December with reference to a statement by the head of the department, Alexander Zharov.

At the same time, Zharov said that Roskomnadzor will continue to monitor the implementation of the law on filtering links by Google. Moreover, the department intends to start the following administrative case against the company in the near future.

Roskomnadzor is ready to consider the possibility of a complete blocking of the Google search service in Russia if the American corporation continues to ignore the requirements of Russian legislation. This message, according to Interfax, was made by the deputy head of the department [Subbotin Vadim]]. Subbotin stressed that, if necessary, Roskomnadzor will make all attempts to block Google in the country. This also includes making amendments to the current legislation to close access to the search from Russian IP addresses.

"Google paid the fine imposed on the administrative case, the money went to the accounts of Roskomnadzor," said a spokesman for the department. At the same time, he clarified that Google had time to pay the fine until February 20, 2019.

2017

Search for Russian Government Relations Manager

In early June, it became known that Google and Facebook opened vacancies for specialists in interaction with the Russian authorities^[56][57]Russia.

The Moscow office of Google is looking for a person who will interact with politicians within the government and beyond, as well as advise the team on local features of the development and promotion of services.

The candidate should have experience in interacting with officials and government agencies, as well as have the ability to easily delve into complex technical and political issues. In addition, the applicant is expected to have excellent analytical and organizational skills, a good sense of humor and excellent communication abilities.

Facebook is offering the candidate a job in Warsaw. The applicant for the position must combine "a passionate interest in services like Facebook and a deep understanding of the political and legislative dynamics in Russia." He will have to notify colleagues about the peculiarities of local legislation and its changes related to the work of Facebook, represent the company at meetings with officials and develop an official position of the team on certain public issues.

The applicant must be fluent in Russian, as well as have excellent English, both written and spoken. In addition, experience with politicians and officials of the "highest level" and "passionate faith in the public favor of the Internet and Facebook in particular" are required.

Google paid FAS a fine of 438 million rubles

Google paid a fine of 438 million rubles imposed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The fine, according to the FAS, was transferred on May 9, 2017.

Settlement agreement between Google and FAS. Main thing

Google appealed Federal Antimonopoly Service to (FAS) Russia with a proposal to conclude an amicable agreement. The proposal from Google, said the deputy head of the legal department Larisa Vovkivskaya, was received on February 27^[58] that the^[59] Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) and Google Corporation announced on April 17 an amicable agreement on the dispute. The proceedings were initiated by ""; Yandex the final agreement will allow Russian Internet companies to actively promote their services in phones based on. Android

The settlement agreement is the actual victory of Yandex and the FAS.
Google agreed not only to pay a huge fine, but also to change agreements with manufacturers. For six years and nine months, the corporation will allow vendors to install any third-party applications on Android phones and tablets - including the home screen and by default. The FAS press release also says^[60]Google "refuses the requirements for the exclusivity of its applications on devices based on Android OS." The changes will affect only phones that will be sold in Russia.

Google will offer Russian users the right to choose.
The corporation has entered into a commercial agreement with Yandex, according to which Android phones will offer users to decide for themselves whose search they want to establish. In new phones, at the first launch, it will be possible to choose whether the widget fixed at the top of the main screen of the system should be searched through Google or Yandex. Other Russian search engines will also be able to join this agreement.

Current users will be offered to switch to Yandex. In Chrome, the default browser installed on Android phones, a selection window will appear that will prompt you to select the default search engine. Google said it was happy to conclude a commercial agreement with Yandex. "As part of a commercial agreement with Yandex approved by the FAS, we will continue to offer our 11 applications (including Google, Chrome and Google Play) as part of the application package. As before, the decision on whether to pre-install our applications on Android smartphones remains with smartphone manufacturers, "the press service of^[61] told Meduza^[62]

Also, within 60 days, interested Russian search engines can contact Google to discuss possible conditions for inclusion in the selection window in 2018. In accordance with this decision, Mail.Ru Group invited the company to add Mail.Ru Search to the search engine selection window (in particular, in the Google Chrome browser), as well as to the corresponding widget on the Android home screen.

2016

FAS fined Google 1 million rubles

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation brought Google Inc. and Google Ireland Limited to administrative responsibility for non-compliance with the order, both companies were fined 500 thousand rubles. each, reports Prime with reference to the agency's message. Thus, the total amount of the fine is 1 million rubles.

"FAS Russia has brought Google Inc. and Google Ireland Limited to administrative responsibility for failure to comply with the order. The agency fined both companies 500 thousand rubles. Earlier, the regulator refused Google to extend the deadlines for the execution of the prescription, "the message says.

In September 2015, the FAS found Google guilty of violating competition law, in particular, of abusing its dominant position in the pre-installed app store market. OS Android

The deadline for the execution of Google's order expired on August 29, the FAS gave the company 10 days to inform the service about the fulfillment of the requirements. The company asked for an extension of the deadline for the execution of the order, but the service rejected this request. As noted in the FAS earlier, Google may face a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles. for failure to comply with the prescription on time.

FAS fined Google almost half a billion rubles

The FAS ruled against Google in the case of restricting competition in the mobile software market, opened in early 2015 on the complaint of Yandex. The company was fined 438 million rubles^[63].

The representative of the press service of the department, Anna Orlova, refused to clarify how much the amount of the fine was calculated, citing commercial secrets. Earlier, the head of the FAS Igor Artemyev warned that the amount of the fine for Google could be up to 7% of the company's revenue received in the market where the violation was committed. FAS identified it as a market for pre-installed application stores in Russia. If the antimonopoly service has not changed the decision on the size of the fine since then, then the revenue of the American corporation from Google Play in Russia may amount to 6.3 billion rubles. Google does not disclose financial indicators for individual segments and countries.

The case of violation of competition against Google was opened in February 2015 on the complaint of the main Russian competitor of the corporation - Yandex. Representatives of Yandex claimed that they faced restrictions from a number of manufacturers of mobile devices (Explay, Fly, etc.): in particular, they terminated agreements on the pre-installation of mobile applications. Manufacturers referred to contract restrictions by Google, Yandex said.

Advisor to the President Klimenko German Sergeevich said that in the United States there is a practice when for large Internet companies and copyright holders the judge simply sets a certain amount of a daily fine until the violation is eliminated. "For Google, these are small amounts, it incurs much greater costs around the world, the same patent wars. The amount less than $10 million for Google is absolutely insignificant. "

2015

US authorities 50 times more likely to ask Google to disclose data than Russia

• Google's relationship with governments and intelligence agencies around the world

Google published statistics on requests for the disclosure of user information for July - December 2015^[64]. During the reporting period, government agencies from all over the world sent 40,677 requests to Internet companies, which concerned 81,311 user accounts, which is 18% more than recorded a year earlier, but only 64% of requests were satisfied. In 2014, authorities demanded the disclosure of information regarding 68,908 users.

The bulk of the requests came from the United States, whose government agencies made 12,523 requests regarding confidential data from 27,157 accounts, with 79% of them receiving a satisfactory response. The second place in the list was taken by Germany, from where 7,491 requests came regarding 11,562 users. Compared to North American colleagues, German services are less effective, only 57% of requests received a meaningful response. The Russian authorities sent only 257 requests regarding 433 users, but only 7% of requests led to the disclosure of data.

The report also states that the number of requests every year is steadily growing. Google representatives attribute this to the growing popularity of their services and the increase in the number of users.

Share in search - 34.9%

According to LiveInternet data for June 2015, the share of the competitor is Yandex, in the Russian search market amounted to 56.7% (61.1% a year earlier), Google - 34.9% (29.1%, respectively).

Search engines offered to pay Russian media for news

^[65] proposed to legally oblige search engines to pay remuneration for the use of electronic media materials^[66] Dmitry Biryukov, Chairman of the Public Chamber (OP) Commission for the Development of the Information Society, Media and Mass Media. According to him, in almost all European countries there are similar bills or laws.

In accordance with them, if a search engine publishes any information from a magazine or newspaper, then it pays a fixed reward to the corresponding publication. This norm, according to Biryukov, will allow the Russian media to receive the necessary amount of money that they could send to finance a subscription or retail. As an example, a member of the Public Chamber cited Spain, where since 2015 such a law has been in force.

The information that a similar norm exists in all countries is European Union not correct. Yes, some of the countries have adopted similar laws, but only some, and even less. There is no talk of the pan-European nature of the norm, although such attempts exist. Secondly, those who decided to punish the "bad" Google about it have already regretted it. In the same Spain service, Google News was closed altogether, which, without a doubt, "pleased" the Spanish MEDIA, lost a significant share of traffic. Belgium The publishers chose to go to the world after, by a court decision, Google removed the mention of disgruntled media from all its services, including search results.

In Germany, in a similar situation, Google was forced to withdraw from the law due to a sharp drop in newspaper traffic. In general, nothing good came of the idea: instead of trillions of profits, publishers, as expected, received millions of losses. Without a doubt, the exact same situation will be in Russia if such a law is adopted. First of all, Yandex will suffer, which, although the American search engine is crowding, cannot yet push^[67] to second place^[68].

Google is guilty of violating Russian law. Yandex won

The Russian antimonopoly authority found Google guilty of obstructing fair competition in the mobile phone market in Russia. The company faces a fine. The complaint was put forward by Yandex in February 2015^[69] is ^[70].

Google guilty plea

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia found the American corporation Google and its Irish representative office Google Ireland guilty of violating part one of article 10 of the law "On Protection of Competition." Vladimir Kudryavtsev, head of the FAS information technology department, told CNews about this.

The article provides for the imposition of a revolving fine in the amount of 1-15% of the company's revenue over the past year in the market in which the violation was committed. "The decision and the order to stop the abuse of the dominant position will be made within 10 working days and sent to the parties," said the representative of the FAS.

The decision is expected to be published no later than September 28, 2015. Most likely, due to its volume exceeding 200 volumes, and due to references to trade secrets, it may not be fully published. After the publication of the decision, the parties will have two months to appeal it in court. Google spokeswoman Svetlana Anurova told CNews that the company will study the FAS decision when it receives it.

The essence of the violation

As Vladimir Kudryavtsev told CNews, Google was recognized as a violation of "the totality of the conditions under which Google provided the Google Play store for pre-installation on devices" - an online store through which applications for devices running Android are distributed.

According to Kudryavtsev, at the hearing it turned out that among the conditions under which manufacturers of Android devices were given access to Google Play were the preinstallation of other applications and services created by Google in privileged places, the use of Google search in default devices and the prohibition of manufacturers from installing products "created by some other companies."

According to Kudryavtsev, "90% of the case materials are a commercial secret of either Yandex or Google," and therefore half of the hearing time was held behind closed doors: "when the secrets of Yandex were announced, Google representatives were removed from the hall, when the secrets of Google were announced, Yandex was removed."

Why Yandex started a war against Google

It is by increasing competition on mobile devices that Yandex explains the fall in its share in the Russian Internet search market, noting the importance of its presence in the mobile segment.

In November 2014 (when Yandex's share in the Russian search market fell to 59.5% according to Liveinternet), Yandex representatives said that self-installation by Yandex users with default search helps keep the share on Android at 47%. According to the data provided by Yandex, at that time Android accounted for 86% of mobile devices sold in Russia and more than 84% in the world.

Yandex could expect that the release of its own version of Android called Yandex.Kit would strengthen its position on mobile devices, but faced a ban on Android manufacturers from Google to install products "created by some other companies." The ban was supposed to seriously hit the plans of the Russian search engine.

Google fined for reading Russian correspondence in Gmail

The Moscow City Court ordered the Russian representative office of Google to pay p50 thousand to the resident of Yekaterinburg Anton Burkov for violating the right to privacy of correspondence, Interfax reports with reference to the press service of the court.

Earlier, on April 21, 2015, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow rejected the claim of Burkov, who complained about the American company for violating the right to personal privacy and privacy of correspondence.

"The court changed the decision of the court of first instance and decided to recover p50 thousand from the defendant," a representative of the Moscow City Court told Interfax.

Earlier, an employee of the Russian office of Google said that Google in the United States is the defendant for the Gmail service, so claims must be made to her^[71].

Google closed the development center in St. Petersburg

Google has closed its development center in St. Petersburg. The press service of the Russian representative office of the Internet company reported that it was "about the usual optimization process^[72].

Optimization, emphasized in Google, takes place not only in the Russian Federation, but also, for example, in Finland, Sweden, the United States. When asked about the fate of the employees of the closed development center, the company assured that they "continue to work on projects in other offices (Google)."

In turn, Marina Puzanova, head of the commercial real estate department of the international consulting company Knight Frank Saint-Petersburg, told TASS that the Google development center left its office in St. Petersburg back in August. "Employees were taken to different countries: Switzerland, America and Germany," Puzanova said.

How many people worked in the Google center in St. Petersburg is not specified. A spokeswoman for Knight Frank Saint-Petersburg said only that the development center occupied two floors of the office building.

Blocking the money of partners of the AdSense advertising network in Crimea

Google Corporation closed the accounts of users of the AdSense advertising network in Crimea and blocked the withdrawal of funds from accounts in the system, RIA Novosti reported in January 2015. Users have been informed of the changes by mailing. The letter to Google AdSense users says that Google has blocked the accounts of users registered in Crimea and will not be able to provide them with unpaid funds from their^[73] account^[74].

This step was made in accordance with the decree on the imposition of sanctions against Crimea, which was signed on December 19, 2014 by US President Barack Obama. According to the decree (PDF), American companies are prohibited from exporting their products and technologies to the peninsula, as well as providing services to users in Crimea. AdSense is a Google advertising network that allows you to place contextual text and graphic advertisements on sites that are part of the network, as well as on your own site, ads from other users, receiving money for this. The service was launched in 2003.

In addition to AdSense, the restrictions will affect the AdWords service (advertising in Google search results), TASS reports, citing a Google source. In addition, from February 1, 2015, the corporation will close access to Crimean users to the Google Play Android app store. "Access will remain to Google's free services such as search, Gmail mail and mapping service," the company added.

2014

Four Trademark Applications

In August 2014, it became known that Google Inc. filed an application for registration of four trademarks with Rospatent, RAPSI reports citing materials from the patent office.

The applicant requests to register the following designations as trademarks:

• Barely political,
• Indy mogul,
• Key of awesome и
• Threadbanger^[75].

According to the procedure, after submitting an application for registration of brands within a month, the patent office conducts an examination of the trademark. This is followed by an examination of the declared designation, which has no time restrictions. On average, according to experts, about a year passes from the moment the application is submitted to the issuance of registration (if a positive decision is made).

Google withdraws technical service from Russia

On December 12, 2014, American media reported that Google was going to withdraw engineering and technical services from Russia. The move, according to Bloomberg sources, is related to the upcoming entry into force of the data storage law.^[76]

The Financial Times writes that the staff of developers in the Russian office of Google numbers about 100 people, many of whom work in Moscow. The company intends to transfer them to its representative offices in other countries, the newspaper says.^[77]

"We have great obligations to our Russian users and customers. To support them, we have a special team in Russia, "Google told Bloomberg

.

It is noted that despite the closure of the technical department in Russia, Google is going to increase investments in local business operations in 2015. Earlier, the company made similar steps in Sweden, Finland and Norway.

File:BN-FB114 1016Go G 20141016161425.jpg

Google withdraws technical service from Russia

Initially, it was assumed that the law obliging Russians to store their personal information in Russia would enter into force on September 1, 2016. In September 2014, deputies approved in the second reading the amendment proposed by the information policy committee, according to which the ban on posting data abroad will begin to operate on January 1, 2015. As of December 12, 2014, the third reading has not yet taken place, so so so far the mandatory date for the entry into force of the law is September 1, 2016.

Google entered into an agreement with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)

Google Corporation in connection with the events in Ukraine fell under the suspicion of Russian officials. They believe that, within the framework of the country's security, an American Internet company should create a full-fledged subsidiary to work in Russia.

State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fedorov announced his intentions to send a request to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to verify Google's activities during a conference at the Rossiya Segodnya MIA in September 2014. According to him, Google has entered into an agreement with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to provide the Ukrainian special service with data from Russian users, and also supports the activities of anti-Russian elements in this country.

Evgeny Fedorov believes that within the framework of the country's security, it is necessary that Google in part of Russia eventually passes into Russian jurisdiction and competence. "The timing of Google's nationalization, we hope, is early 2014. These are soft methods: transfer to national jurisdiction - "forced deoffshorization," if you like, he said.

The press service of Google did not comment on such a statement by the deputy.

"We can voluntarily provide user data at the request governmental of foreign institutions within the framework of existing legal procedures, if these requests comply with international legal norms, legislation USA and the requesting country, as well as the rules of the company," ComNews a spokesman for Google explained to the reporter.

2013

Safe Internet League: Google threatens Russia's digital sovereignty

In September 2013, "Safe Internet League concluded that the company Google deliberately conducts work to influence domestic political affairs, Russia as well as to promote its products among Russian citizens and officials, the purpose of which is to weaken Russian electronic sovereignty. This conclusion is contained in an official appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin sent by the League this week, "said the executive director of the Safe League in September 2013, Internet Davydov Denis confirming the information about the letter to the government that appeared in a number of media outlets.

Ignoring the requirements of Russian legislation

Formally, Google does not have its representative office in the Russian Federation. It is registered in the state of California (USA) and, accordingly, is subject to American laws, ignoring the norms of the Russian Federation. So, in the summer of 2013, Google refused to comply with the requirements of Roskomnadzor and notify about the processing of personal data of Russian citizens using the Gmail mail service. As a justification, the fact was cited that during registration, users accept an agreement providing that information about them is provided to third parties "with the consent of the user," as well as in "other cases" (i.e. without the consent of the user), in order to process personal data by third parties, in case of legal requirements. In this case, we are talking about American legislation, to which Google will obey, and, in this part, contradicts the Russian Federal Law "On Personal Data."

In addition, Google is extremely unwilling to comply with the requirements of Law No. 139-FZ on illegal content and in some cases deletes it from its resources untimely. And Google Translate and Google Mobilizer services allow you to get "bypass" access to all information on the site from the registry of banned sites, including images and video files. At the same time, the law is not formally violated, since sites are not opened directly, but after processing by Google and on Google's own website.

Active cooperation with US intelligence agencies

Since 1999, Google has been providing unhindered access to its servers to the US National Security Agency (NSA), and since 2007, it has been participating in the US NSA Prism program, which allows you to monitor the Internet traffic of foreign users of some resources (view email, listen to voice and video chats, view photos, videos, track forwarded files).

In addition, the ubiquity of mobile devices with Google's Android operating system will also provide US intelligence with access to user data for such devices around the world: all new mobile phones, tablets, TVs, cars and other Android devices will include a set of patches ("patches) developed by the NSA, allowing strict control over applications transmitting data to the Internet and isolating them if necessary.

Imposing cooperation with the authorities and the population

Having close ties with the US special services and not repairing the laws of the Russian Federation, Google, on the other hand, is actively promoting its products among officials and the population of the Russian Federation. For example, Google's head office regularly hires specialists in interaction with government authorities in Russia, openly declaring the company's interests in the country's socio-political arena. As a result, it has already been announced that Google and the Open Government of the Russian Federation intend to cooperate "in the field of open data, the development of training programs for Russian regions on the effective use of open government mechanisms."

The company's specialists actively participate in the work of the relevant Committee of the Federation Council on the formation of the Cyber ​ ​ Security Strategy.

State Duma deputies, members of the Federation Council, employees of federal and regional state authorities regularly meet with representatives of Google and at the initiative of Google to discuss various issues, including promoting their approaches to information security issues, protecting personal data, regulating the network.

Work is also carried out with the population. Google specialists regularly train Russian citizens in Internet technologies, emphasizing their own services.

Countering Internet Regulation

In 2012, Google opened a special page on its website, on which it collects signatures in support of "a free and open Internet." The page was created after an attempt by a number of countries, including Russia, to change the principles of the network so that it is not managed by the American authorities, as is happening now, but by international organizations at the UN level collegially, with the involvement of many states.

Also from 2007 to 2012, Google sponsored the creation of the TOP (www.torproject.org) underground network, designed to encrypt transmitted data and hide users' IP addresses. As a result, messages cannot be read in transport nodes of the network and users of this network can exchange content, including prohibited content, in individual countries. The TOP network is notorious for the massive spread of child pornography and is a "haven" for cybercriminals, arms and drug dealers.

2012: Share of searches 26.6%

2011: Google passes user data on all requests from US intelligence agencies and completely refuses Russia

In October 2011, it became known that on the day when letters from Alexei Navalny's mailbox to the Gmail.com were published on the Internet, the owner of this service, Google, published statistics on cooperation with the authorities of different countries. In the first half of 2011, 42 requests for data from 47 users were received from Russia. Neither was satisfied. US authorities sent Google 5950 requests for 11,057 users. The company passed on the required data in 93% of cases.

Letters published on the Internet, allegedly from Navalny's mailbox, are dated, among other things, in 2011. For the first half of 2011, Google, as it is clear from the data published by the company, did not satisfy a single request from Russian law enforcement agencies. Probably, the data was obtained through other channels, for example, through Internet providers. Recall that information about the funds collected by Navalny for the RosPil project fell into improper hands after Yandex.Money presented them to law enforcement agencies in response to official requests.

Most often, Google fulfilled the requests of law enforcement officers of the United States, Japan and Brazil, least often - did not fulfill at all - from Russia and Turkey. Data for China is not provided, but requests from China-controlled Hong Kong have been completed 42% of the time.

2010: Video Ad Sales Start on YouTube

In August 2010, it became known that Google is starting selling Russian video ads on its Youtube video hosting. Market participants believe that the project will be successful: Youtube is a large platform, and advertising on regular TV is practically bought out by the end of the year.

Google has launched a new advertising format on the Russian market - videos on Youtube video hosting, a source in the media company said and confirmed the head of the Russian office of Google Vladimir Dolgov. According to the first, in mid-July 2010, a test campaign was held on the Youtube portal: Google offered advertisers 7 million video screenings for 275,000 rubles. That is, 1000 shows cost 39.3 rubles, which is unprecedentedly small, says the source of Vedomosti. Andrey Chernyshov, general director of AdWatch advertising agency, agrees with him. Rutube video hosting takes an order of magnitude more per thousand video screenings - 510-900 rubles.

The prices of the test advertising campaign do not comment on debts, and the full launch of the new advertising format promises in early autumn 2010. According to Dolgov, the Russian office of Google is developing a new sales model for such advertising: its cost will not depend on the number of shows, it will be a fixed price for each day of posting a commercial on the main page of Youtube. What this price will be, he does not say. Youtube has been selling video ads for about two years, Dolgov adds, while the project was delayed in Russia due to problems with accepting payments. Now Google has set up billing for Russia and advertisers and agencies will be able to purchase advertising on Youtube directly from the Russian office, paying for it in rubles, Dolgov promises.

Previously, Russian-language advertising on Youtube was purchased by advertisers under global contracts or European representative offices of advertising agencies, says Dmitry Ashmanov, general director of the advertising agency Mindshare Interaction. He is sure: Youtube will be popular with advertisers, "everyone has long wanted to be there."

The total volume of the video advertising market in Runet in 2009 doubled to 300 million rubles, Rutube believes. This company does not estimate the share of Youtube, but considers its own equal to 21% (63 million rubles).

The launch of a new format and the ability to pay in rubles will increase the demand for advertising on Youtube and attract advertisers from Russia, Dolgov hopes. Multinational companies have long been waiting for Google to start selling video ads on Youtube in Russia, agrees Rutube commercial director Alexander Khudoley. But success will depend on the effectiveness and volume of the audience of the new format, as well as on Google's ability to sell media advertising, he believes, because it specializes in contextual. Video ads on Youtube are effective, says Chernyshov from AdWatch, because this site is originally designed to view videos. And now, when advertising on television is practically bought out by the end of the year, Youtube can count on the arrival of large advertisers, he adds.

2009: Agreement with Mail.ru Group to replace the search

At the end of 2009, Mail.ru Group signed an agreement to replace search on its portal with Yandex with Google, but in reality this search started working only in the second half of 2010. According to Chernitskaya (general director of the advertising agency iContext), Google, which needs to increase its market share in Russia, gives Mail.ru Group almost 100% of revenue from contextual advertising on the portal pages.

2006: Opening of development centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg

The Google Development Center opened in St. Petersburg in the fall of 2006. It became the second development center for this Internet company in Russia. Earlier that year, Google's development center was opened in Moscow.

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