FAS, Google make settlement agreement for 6 years and 9 months - regulator

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The court approved the settlement agreement between the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and Google in the Android case. The agreement was made for 6 years and 9 months, Deputy Head of FAS Alexei Dotsenko said at a press conference on Monday. "Hence the legal standoff lasting for nearly two years has ended. We attempted to find mechanisms and approaches making possible to eliminate damage to competition inflicted by Google before within the framework of this settlement agreement," the official said. Google should eliminate all competition violations within the framework of the settlement agreement. At the same time, Google agreed to make one-off payment of the 438 mln rubles ($7.8 mln) fine and two fines of 500,000 rubles ($8,900) each imposed on affiliates of the US corporation - Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. All the fines are to be paid within two months according to the law but FAS believes it will take place quicker. "The term of the agreement is 6 years and 9 months," the official said. The parties also agree to recall all claims currently in proceedings, deputy department head of FAS Larisa Vovkivskaya said. The settlement provides that Google waives exclusivity of its applications on devices with Android OS in Russia for its effective term. Users of Android-based smartphones will see the "selection window" with several options of the search engine after update of the browser and the search widget. On September 14, 2015 the Federal Antimonopoly Service recognized Google Inc. and Google Ireland Ltd. as having breached the competition protection law under the complaint of the Russian Internet company Yandex. According to the regulator, Google obliged manufacturers of Android OS-based devices to pre-install its applications together with Android platform. FAS said that Google’s policy restricted installation of applications by other developers. Read more