Google was fined $100 million, the largest fine in the history of a Russian court

Recently, a Russian court imposed a record fine of $100 million for Google's alleged "systematic failure to remove banned content." Although the fine was the largest ever imposed by a Russian court, it reportedly accounted for only 6.7 percent of Google's revenue in Russia last year.

After Roskomnadzor, the Russian internet regulator, told Google that its annual revenue in Russia in 2020 would exceed 85 billion rubles (about $1.5 billion), the court set the fine at $100 million. This is the first time Russian authorities have calculated such a fine based on the turnover of a tech company.

The court order isn't the first time Russia has imposed financial penalties on Google for content. In 2018, the tech company was fined 500,000 rubles ($6,800) for failing to remove opposition leader Alexei Navalny's call for demonstrations against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the same crime landed Google 700,000 rubles and 1.5 million rubles respectively in 2019 and 2020. This time last year, a Russian court ruled that Google had repeatedly failed to remove search results that "contained Russian prohibited information" and fined the company 3 million rubles (about $41,000).

Russian journalist Alexander Plushev speculated on social media that the apparently more severe fine "could indicate that a political decision has been made to deport Western services from Russia." At a news conference on Thursday, Putin did not rule out blocking social networks or internet companies operating in Russian cyberspace if they ignore the country's laws.

Google has ten days to appeal the penalty. The company's news department said it would decide whether to appeal after studying the court documents.

The fine comes after Putin signed legislation that became law in July, which requires large social media companies operating in Russia to open offices in the country and maintain a physical presence there by January 1, 2022. Failure to comply with the law may result in restrictions or blanket prohibitions.

Note: This article is reported by E Security Compilation.