The agreement with the FAS obliges Google to resume the work of its services in the Crimea

Google Corporation on April 17 signed an agreement with FAS. In addition to other conditions, this document obliges the company to give the opportunity to select a search system for users throughout Russia, writes Izvestia.

"For devices that are in circulation in the Russian Federation, Google will develop a selection window, which, with the next update, will give users the opportunity to select the default search engine," explained FAS deputy head Alexei Dotsenko. Even more interesting is the nuance regarding the work of Google in Crimea. According to Russian officials, now the American company is obliged to make its services accessible to all residents of the peninsula.

The FAS says that if the company does not fulfill the part of the agreement concerning the Crimea, then the regulator will appeal to the court: “The settlement agreement is valid throughout the Russian Federation for users who use Android with a pre-installed app store and Google search. In the event of non-compliance with the terms of the agreement, direct compulsion will follow through the courts. ”
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At the moment, residents of Crimea can not use the Google Play app store directly. If you try to enable it, as well as some other services, the user from Crimea will receive the following message: “Purchases are not supported. Purchases are not available in your area according to the European Council Regulation (EC) No. 1351/2014 and Executive Order No. 13685 of the President of the United States. " At the moment, regional users do not have paid apps, and some free ones are “not supported by the device”. You can solve the problem by workarounds, but you will not be able to work directly with a number of Google services in Crimea.

As for the agreement , Google and FAS have come to it for two years. Back in September 2015, FAS recognized Google as violator of the law “On Protection of Competition” after a statement by Yandex. According to the regulator, the US corporation has abused its dominant position in the market of pre-installed applications, including a search in the Android OS. As a result, the FAS ordered the corporation to eliminate violations before December 18, 2015. Google challenged this decision in the courts, but without much success. As a result, FAS and Google entered into a settlement agreement providing for the payment of a fine in the amount of 438 million rubles and the obligation to follow Russian laws.

“In order to comply with the requirements of the FAS agreement, Google is obliged to recognize Crimea as Russian and allow the inhabitants of the peninsula to choose a search engine. Otherwise, new proceedings may begin. IT services are becoming a key public good, and the observance of our laws by Western platforms affects the economy and the IT sovereignty of the country. I am sure this is not the last antitrust case. Russian developers should go to court more often, ”said Arseny Shcheltsin, director for project activities at the Internet Development Institute.