MOSCOW, August 31 - RAPSI. State Duma (Russia's lower house of parliament) deputies and public figures believe that Megafon, a mobile service provider, may face new lawsuits and expenses if clients affected by SMS leaks on the Internet this summer decide to sue the company. Experts are of the opinion that the fine imposed on Megafon is insignificant.

The Moscow Commercial Court fined Megafon 30,000 rubles (roughly $1,035) on Tuesday for failing to prevent its subscribers SMS from being leaked on the Internet.

The court fined Megafon in a claim filed by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor). The service filed its lawsuit after several thousand SMS messages sent to Megafon subscribers from the Megafon website on July 19 were leaked on the Internet. On Yandex, Russias leading search engine, searches yielded both the SMS content and the SMS addressees phone numbers of these leaked messages.