MOSCOW, August 27 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Investory company seeking recovery of 5 million rubles ($79,600) in losses allegedly caused by Telegram messenger blocking from the Finance Ministry and Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomandzor, RAPSI learnt in the court.

The plaintiff said earlier that the defendants’ actions resulted in decline in the firm’s data-handling capacity. The caused damage was estimated at 10 million rubles ($158,300), however, the amount claimed was reduced to 5 million rubles.

Roskomnadzor denied allegations its actions infringed on the operation of web-based products of Google, such as Gmail, YouTube, Google.ru and others. The watchdog noted that these products were not on blacklists and Internet providers were not instructed to block them. As to the problems users experienced with respect to Google.ru, the watchdog stated that they could occur due to inferior filtration systems run by small-scale operators.

On April 16, Roskomnadzor sent communications providers data on Telegram Messenger LLP websites for blocking.

Moscow’s Tagansky District Court ordered restriction of access to Telegram in Russia on April 13. The court tasked Roskomnadzor with putting a stop to sending and receiving messages in Telegram until the messenger fulfills its obligations by providing deciphering keys. The ruling came into force immediately. Roskomnadzor started blocking the messenger on April 16.

According to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information”, organizers of information distribution on the Internet must submit information about users and their messages to the authorized governmental bodies conducting investigative activities and ensuring the state security.