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Court fines Zoom $1.181 mln for not having representative office in Russia

This is the first time a company has been ordered to pay 1/10 of its income for such an offense

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. A magistrate court fined Zoom Video Communications 115 million rubles ($1,181,627) for failing to open an affiliate branch on Russian territory, a court representative told TASS.

"The court found Zoom Video Communications guilty under part 2 of article 13.49 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (failure to fulfill the obligations provided for by the legislation on the activities of foreign persons in the Internet information and telecommunications network on the territory of the Russian Federation) and imposed a fine on the company in the amount of 115,680,103 rubles 20 kopecks from the amount of revenue for the previous year," the official of Moscow’s magistrate court department No. 422 court said.

This is the first time a company has been ordered to pay 1/10 of its income for such an offense.

According to court files, Russia's mass media and telecommunications watchdog drew up a protocol regarding Zoom on September 23.

Zoom Video Communications Inc is headquartered in the USA, but operates in Russia. However, the company did not open a branch or representative office on Russian territory, which violates the law "On the activities of foreign persons on the territory of the Russian Federation." According to the case files, from February 1, 2021 to August of this year, more than 400,000 users in Russia use Zoom every day. The company receives money from Russian individuals and entities.

According to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, for this offense legal entities must pay a fine in the amount of one tenth of the revenue earned in the year preceding the administrative offense.

In the summer of 2022, Zoom was fined 1 million rubles ($10,274) for violating the law on the localization of personal data. On October 12 of this year, Zoom was fined 15 million rubles ($154,118) for continuing to refuse to localize the data of Russian users on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Zoom is an American communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that provides remote video conferencing services. The Law "On Personal Data" obliges Russian and foreign companies to store personal information of Russians only on the territory of the Russian Federation.

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