Tinder owner to be held responsible for refusal to localize Russian users' data

MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - A magistrate's court in Moscow will have a hearing at the end of July to process a motion from the Federal Communications watchdog Roskomnadzor against the U.S. company Match Group LLC, which owns the popular Tinder dating and geosocial networking application, over its refusal to localize the personal data of Russian users in Russia.

"The hearing of an administrative offense motion against Match Group LLC will begin at 11:00 a.m. on July 28," the court told Interfax on Tuesday.

The motion is based on the failure of the operator gathering personal data to comply with the duty of recording, systematizing, accumulating and storing personal data of Russian citizens in databases in Russia. The offense is punishable by a fine of up to 6 million rubles.

The U.S. company headquartered in Dallas owns and manages the largest global portfolio of popular online services, and more than 45 global dating companies, including Tinder.

Roskomnadzor said earlier that about 600 offices of foreign companies had localized the storage of Russian users' data.

The LinkedIn social network has been blocked in Russia for breaching the localization requirement. Moscow's Tagansky District Court upheld the respective motion from Roskomnadzor in 2016.