Russia, Google reach USD 7.8 mln settlement on Android case

Russian officials and Google have reached an agreement to settle a two-year-old case against Google for requiring the pre-installation of some of its apps on mobile devices using the Android system.

The agreement was announced today by Alexei Dostenko, deputy head of Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, according to Russian news reports.

Under the settlement, Google is to pay 439 million rubles (USD 7.8 million) in fines and will not limit the pre- installation of third-party apps, the reports said.

The case was brought to the FAS in 2015 by Yandex, which is Russia's dominant search engine and offers various apps including a popular one for ordering taxis. Yandex's shares surged 6 per cent on the Moscow stock exchange after the settlement was announced.