Russia fines Google approximately 87 million euros for illegal content

Russia has fined Google 7.2 billion rubles, about 87 million euros. Google has repeatedly failed to comply with the country’s demand to remove content that has been labeled illegal.

Given that Google Russia generated about 85.5 billion rubles in sales in 2020, the fine imposed represents about 8.4 percent of the company’s annual Russian sales figures. The search giant says it will first look extensively at the court’s ruling before taking further steps, Reuters writes.

By illegal content, Russia includes promoting drugs and “dangerous hobbies” and information about the manufacture of weapons and explosives. Content from groups that Russia considers extremist and terrorist should also be removed, according to the country.

Russia has already issued several smaller warning fines to tech giants such as Google and Twitter in the past. This is the first time Russia has imposed a percentage of a company’s annual turnover as a fine. The country already threatened this in October if Google would not remove the illegal content and pay the fines. At that time, there was still an outstanding fine of approximately 393,000 euros. According to Reuters, Google paid that amount shortly after the threat.