14 Dec 2022 18:46

Amazon did not appeal 4-mln-ruble fines imposed on company earlier in Russia - court

MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) - Amazon has not contested judgments issued by a Russian court that earlier imposed fines on the Internet company for failing to delete information designated as illicit in Russia.

"The judgment that found the company Amazon guilty of an administrative offense was not contested and became enforceable back on November 25," spokesperson for Moscow's Tagansky District Court Zulfiya Gurinchuk told Interfax on Wednesday.

The fines that the Russian court earlier ordered Amazon to pay are due on January 25, 2023. If the company fails to pay them, the case will be referred to bailiffs for collection.

A magistrates' court of Moscow's Tagansky District Court on October 18 found Amazon guilty of two administrative offenses in connection with a refusal to delete information banned in Russia and fined the company 4 million rubles on aggregate.

These are the first fines imposed on Amazon for violating Russian laws.

The Russian court fined the Internet giant for failure to delete content banned in Russia, specifically information "about the places where narcotic substances are distributed and methods of distribution," as well as ways to commit suicide.

The key Internet services, i.e. Google, Telegram, Facebook (information resource of an entity banned in Russia), Twitter and TikTok, have been repeatedly fined since the beginning of 2021 over their failure to remove content prohibited in Russia. The overall fines imposed on all these foreign companies have exceeded 200 million rubles.

The video streaming service Twitch Interactive, an Amazon subsidiary, has been fined many times by a Russian court.