Legal matters

Booking.com to pay 1.3 billion ruble fine over abuse of dominant position

February 8, 2022

On Monday, Jan. 31, a Moscow court rejected Booking.com’s appeal against a 1.3 billion ruble fine ($17 million at the current exchange rate) in relation with alleged violation of the antimonopoly legislation. While expressing its “disappointment” with the ruling, Booking.com said it intends to pay the fine. The company does not rule out “further legal …

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Siberian utility filed 137 lawsuits over crypto miners using cheap power

January 28, 2022

Irkutskenergosbyt, the main utility company in Irkutsk, Siberia, is looking to collect almost $800,000 from owners of crypto farms that have allegedly caused a spike in local electricity consumption. In total, the company has filed 137 lawsuits against customers who set up mining facilities in basements and garages. The company says these home miners are engaged in entrepreneurial …

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Moscow court lifts US investor Michael Calvey’s restrictions on leaving home

January 25, 2022

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has lifted the house arrest restrictions on US citizen Michael Calvey, the founder of top private equity fund Baring Vostok,  three years after his arrest and months in jail.  The courts previously ruled that Calvey was forbidden to leave the house after 8pm, communicate with witnesses outside the framework …

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Yandex announces settlement of anti-monopoly claims

January 19, 2022

Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX), one of Europe’s largest internet companies and the leading search and ride-hailing provider in Russia, today announced that it has reached a settlement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) and a consortium of Russian Internet companies in connection with an antitrust claim brought against Yandex. The claim related …

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Russia imposes record fines to Google, Meta for failing to remove banned content

December 28, 2021

On Friday last week, Russia slapped tech giants Google and Meta with penalties totaling over $125 million for repeated failure to remove banned content, the media reported. A Moscow magistrate’s court fined Google 7.2 billion rubles (around $98 million at the current exchange rate) under a legal clause that allows courts to impose between 5% and …

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Russia threatens to block YouTube for taking down another German RT channel

December 19, 2021

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecom and Internet regulator, is threatening to restrict access to YouTube after the video platform shut down yet another German-language channel run by the Russian state-controlled television network RT (Russia Today). According to a Roskomnadzor press release published on Friday, December 17, the federal censor sent a letter to YouTube’s parent company, Google, demanding that …

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Former US citizen and Ulmart co-owner August Meyer arrested in St. Petersburg

December 16, 2021

August Meyer, co-owner of cosmetics chain Rive Gauche and former co-owner of now defunct online retail Ulmart — was arrested Wednesday last week in St. Petersburg. Meyer and his wife, Inna Meyer, are suspected of embezzling 2.4 billion rubles ($32.6 million at the current exchange rate) from state-owned bank Sberbank on the pretext of developing Ulmart shortly …

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“A new Dreyfus affair:” Ilya Sachkov asks President Putin to be transferred from jail to house arrest

November 23, 2021

Ilya Sachkov, the top cybersecurity businessman who was arrested under charges of “state treason” in late September,  has claimed he is innocent and asked President Putin to be transferred from jail to house arrest during the investigation.  Excerpts of his letter to Putin were shared with Forbes Russia by Sachkov’s lawyer Sergey Afanasyev. “I think this is a …

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Facebook and Google exposed to record fines for not removing unlawful content in Russia

October 11, 2021

Russia could impose record fines on Facebook and Google (held responsible for YouTube) for not removing prohibited content. Since these companies are accused of repeated violations, fines could be in the range of 1/20 to 1/10 of the yearly revenues they generate in Russia. Thus Facebook, which makes around 10 billion rubles per year in the …

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YouTube CEO responds to Russia censorship accusations

September 28, 2021

Susan Wojcicki, chief executive officer at Google’s YouTube, said the internet giant still holds free speech as a “core value,” in the company’s first public comments since it acceded to a Russian government order to remove material from political opponents. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. pulled a voting app from opposition leader Alexey Navalny ahead of …

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How Russia forced Apple and Google to block anti-Kremlin app on parliamentary election day

September 28, 2021

On Sept. 17 Apple and Google disabled Russian users’ access to the pro-opposition ‘Smart Voting’ app in their online stores. Just hours later Telegram, the international instant messenger whose creator Pavel Durov touts its full independence, dealt a new blow to ‘Smart Voting’ by suspending — in a selective and controversial way — bots associated with …

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US sanctions Russia-based cryptocurrency exchange over ransomware

September 27, 2021

The US Treasury Department has for the first time sanctioned cryptocurrency exchange, a Russian-based Suex that is registered in the Moscow City business compound and operates physical as well as virtual exchanges. Suex is allegedly responsible for over $480 million of unlawful operations, has been used for ransomware attacks and operated transfers to and from Finiko crypto ponzi scheme and Russia’s …

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