Google faces fine of up to 1/10 of annual revenue, administrative offense report drawn up for failure to remove banned content

MOSCOW. Oct 27 (Interfax) - An administrative offense report has been drawn up against Google for repeatedly failing to remove information banned in Russia, putting it at risk of a fine of 5% to 10% of its annual revenue, the press service for the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) said.

"On October 27, Roskomnadzor drew up an administrative offense report against the U.S. IT company Google LLC for a repeated violation of the procedure for restricting access to materials containing prohibited information (Part 5 of Article 13.41 of the Russian Administrative Offenses Code). Such an offense entails a penalty in the form of an administrative fine, which may range from 1/20 to 1/10 of the annual turnover of the Internet company," it said.

The administrative offense report will be submitted to court to bring the company to justice, Roskomnadzor said.

Roskomnadzor said that its claims result from the YouTube video hosting website (owned by Google LLC) "systematically failing to comply with the requirements for the removal of materials containing information that is banned in Russia."

Earlier, Roskomnadzor drew up a similar administrative offense report against Facebook.

Roskomnadzor noted that since the beginning of 2021, 16 reports on administrative violations under Article 13.41 of the Russian Administrative Offenses Code have been drawn up against Google LLC for failure to remove banned content.

"The company has been held administratively liable for 32.5 million rubles," the telecoms regulator said.

Google says that it pays all court-ordered fines once they enter into force.