Reuters: The Kremlin wants to increase fines for Google and Facebook to 1% of revenue in Russia

The Presidential Administration and Roskomnadzor are developing an amendment to the Administrative Code that would allow technology companies to be fined in the amount of 1% of their annual revenue in Russia if these companies repeatedly violate the Information Law. about this writes Reuters with reference to a copy of the document, as well as sources in Russian and foreign Internet companies.

As the agency notes, the fine will be at least 1.5 million rubles, even if the company has earned nothing in Russia. However, it can be charged several times for each violation. How this will be carried out is still unclear; some companies do not have a legal entity in Russia.

According to sources, in November, presidential administration officials sent the project to several Russian and foreign Internet companies to get feedback. The Kremlin did not respond to a Reuters request . Roskomnadzor representative Vadim Ampelonsky said that the regulator is not involved in the development of the bill.

Now, for violating the law, companies can be fined up to several hundred thousand rubles, or the court can decide to restrict access to their Internet projects in Russia. In particular, after Telegram refused to hand over the keys for decrypting user correspondence to the FSB, in mid-April 2018, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow upheld Roskomnadzor’s claim to block the messenger in Russia .