The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) came to the conclusion that the owner of YouTube, Google, infringes on the interests of users and limits competition in related markets.
The agency called the video hosting rules for blocking content biased and unpredictable. The amount of the fine will be determined in the course of an administrative investigation. Director of the Safe Internet League Ekaterina Mizulina, in an interview with Sekret Firmy, suggested that the fine could be up to 15% of the revenue of the IT giant in the video hosting market.
The FAS filed a case against Google became known in April 2021. The reason was the statement of the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies (ROCIT), which applied to the FAS in December 2020. In addition, in December last year, the IT giant became the first company in Russian history to receive a turnover fine of more than 7.2 billion rubles for repeated failure to delete prohibited information.
Google is not the only company that has faced complaints from the regulator. Among those who paid close attention to the FAS are Apple, Samsung and Microsoft. With which other technology corporations did the service have conflicts, what claims were made and at what stage are the proceedings – read in the Forbes material.
The FAS has had claims against Google before. In September 2015, the agency found the IT giant guilty of abuse of dominance. The case was opened in February after a statement by Yandex: being the owner of the Android operating system, Google prohibited mobile device manufacturers from pre-installing competing applications on them, in particular search from Yandex. FAS imposed a fine on the company and issued an order to eliminate violations. After 2.5 years, Google paid a fine of 450 million rubles.
Apple
In December 2016, the Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case against Apple after a citizen who could not replace the smartphone display at the service center applied to the department – he was offered to pay an additional 22,000 rubles and get a new phone. On February 20, 2017, the FAS ordered the Russian structure of Apple – Apple Rus LLC – to open a single service center by May 1.
In 2017, the Federal Antimonopoly Service also found Apple Rus LLC guilty of coordinating prices for the iPhone 5 and 6 in Russian retail chains. The case was opened in August 2016 at the request of a citizen who noticed similar prices for the iPhone in several stores. In June 2017, the FAS fined the Russian subsidiary of Apple for 1.75 million rubles.
Another case against Apple was initiated in October 2021. The company has not followed up on a warning about not informing App Store app buyers about alternative payment methods.
Microsoft
Microsoft interested FAS employees in 2016 after a complaint from the developer of anti-virus software Kaspersky Lab. The reason for the dissatisfaction of the Russian company was that the time for ensuring compatibility of third-party anti-virus software with the Microsoft operating system was reduced to six days from two months. In August 2017, the case was dismissed, as the company eliminated the violations, no penalties were applied.
Lenovo and HP
At the beginning of 2017, the FAS opened a new cartel case in the purchase of Lenovo and HP computers for government agencies in the amount of 2.2 billion rubles (the first was initiated in November 2016). Among the customers of the products were the Central Election Commission, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, but the antimonopolists had no complaints against them. By law, the coordinator of the cartel, Hewlett Packard, will have to pay a fine in the amount of 1 million to 5 million rubles.
LG
In 2018, the Federal Antimonopoly Service found LG’s Russian subsidiary, LG Electronics RUS LLC, guilty of coordinating prices for smartphones. To monitor retailers’ prices and control them, LG used a special algorithm program. The South Korean company received a fine of 2.5 million rubles.
Samsung
Similar claims arose from the antimonopoly service and to Samsung. In 2019, the FAS found guilty the Russian structure of the company, Samsung Electronics Rus Company, of illegally coordinating prices for smartphones and tablets, which the company was engaged in together with retailers. The case was opened in February following an unscheduled on-site inspection conducted in 2018. According to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Samsung’s subsidiary coordinated the economic activities of several companies, including M.Video, Svyaznoy, Eldorado, Ulmart, Citylink, Beeline and MTS. FAS imposed a fine of 2.5 million rubles on the company.
Booking
FAS opened a case against Booking.com at the end of December 2019 after a complaint from the Opora Rossii business association. The Antimonopoly Service found that Booking.com imposed on Russian hotels, hotels and hostels the mandatory “provision and observance of parity of prices and rooms, as well as conditions for interaction with closed user groups.” “For hotels, this meant that they could not set the price for their services in other sales channels lower than on the Booking.com aggregator,” the FAS explained. As a result, the agency fined Booking.com 1.3 billion rubles for “abusing its dominant position” in the Russian market.
