MOSCOW, April 28 (RAPSI) – An appeal filed by Google against a ruling that the company broke Russian anti-monopoly legislation by abusing its dominant position with its Android mobile platform, has been set for July 2, RAPSI learnt in the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeal. 

Yet in March, the Moscow Commercial Court dismissed Google’s petition requesting to abolish the FAS decision and order issued in February 2015, which stated that the company restrained competition and abused its dominance on the Russian market of mobile applications in violation of the Federal Law on Protection of Competition.  

FAS has requested Google to remedy the detected breeches by amending agreements the company made with producers of devices until December 18. The case was opened at the request of Yandex, one of the largest internet companies in Europe, operating Russia's most popular search engine and a website. Google filed a lawsuit against the FAS order but it was dismissed by the Moscow Commercial Court.

At the end of March, FAS informed that Google had submitted the complete set of data with regard to the company’s operations on the Russian market in 2014, including information about earnings on the part of Google Play and related products. At that time the antimonopoly watchdog stated that it could calculate the amount of fine, but did not make it public.

On April 19, Igor Artemyev, FAS Head, said that Google was to be fined for its operations on the Russian market; however, the amount of the fine would be much less than in Europe.

Earlier, a Google representative said that the company had lodged an appeal against this decision. According to this representative, Google continued to cooperate with Russian authorities and explain how Android ecosystem operated. “[It – ed.] actively encourages competition allowing consumers to get mobile devices of superior quality across the price range,” – the Google representative noted, adding that the platform permitted consumers and producers of gadgets, as well as carrier service providers to make choices. 

In its turn, Yandex claimed that Google was trying to deflect attention away from the main issue of the case, since “the FAS decision and order have nothing to do with Android merits as a platform and in no way restrict its development and potential.” According to a Yandex representative, the question was primarily about anti-competition practices, i.e. bans and restrictions on the distribution of competitors’ applications Google used to prohibit them preinstall applications and to gain unjustified advantage.