MOSCOW, July 1 (RAPSI) – The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals in Moscow has dismissed an appeal filed by Mail.ru against the ruling of the Moscow Commercial Court in a criminal case over advertisement law breach, the court materials read.

On March 23, the Moscow Commercial Court upheld the ruling of the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s (FAS) Moscow office to fine Google and Mail.ru for violating Russian advertisement legislation.

On February 19, Google was fined 150,000 rubles ($1,973) while Mail.ru was fined 100,000 rubles ($1,315).

According to FAS, abovementioned online companies have violated Russian legislation by distributing “Ruscredit” bank’s advertisement in Google AdWords and myTarget systems because during the period when advertisement was active Ruscredit had no official banking license.

Representative of Mail.ru claimed that myTarget system allows advertisers to provide advertisement on their own volition. According to contract between Mail.ru and an advertiser, the former only provides technical means and system maintenance. Examination of the advertisement is a right of the company, not an obligation, Mail.ru’s representative said.

Representative of FAS said that Mail.ru had means to check the advertisement and was obligated to do it.

Russian legislation prohibits advertisement of products requiring special licenses to be produced or distributed if said licenses are absent. On this basis, FAS claimed that Google, Mail.ru and Ruscredit are guilty of violating advertisement law.