The Moscow Arbitration Court arrested all accounts and property of the Russian division of Google (Google LLC) for a total of 500 million rubles.
This measure was taken in response to a lawsuit filed by the NTV television company, whose account had previously been blocked on YouTube video hosting in 70 countries. NTV insists on unblocking access to the channel’s account, and also wants to recover a penalty from Google.
It is noted that Google may appeal the court decision within one month from the date of adoption. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 24, 2022.
This is part of wider legal action against Google in Russia.
The Tagansky Court of Moscow imposed a fine on the company in December 2021. Google was found guilty under Part 5 of Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for repeated failure to remove information prohibited in Russia.
The company was fined 5% of its annual revenue for 2020, which amounted to 7.22 billion rubles (roughly USD$104,827,613). This was the first time that an IT company received a turnover fine in Russia.
The deadline for voluntary payment of the fine expired on March 19. Now they want to recover funds from the company forcibly.
Sources
https://tass.ru/ekonomika/14545681?utm_source=seonews.ru&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=seonews.ru&utm_referrer=seonews.ru
https://www.interfax.ru/russia/838921
