Russia Fines Facebook Just $47 For Failing to Comply with Data Law

Russian telecom watchdog lodged a complaint after Facebook failed to comply with Russia’s data localisation law.

Russian telecommunications watchdog lodged a complaint after Facebook failed to comply with Russia’s data localisation legislation.

(Photo: AP)

A Moscow court, on Friday, 12 April fine Facebook 3,000 rubles ($47 approximately) for refusing to provide information on the localisation of personal data of Russian users of the service in the Russian Federation, news agency Interfax reported.

The legal proceedings started after a complaint from Roskomnadzor, the country’s telecommunications watchdog.

Roskomnadzor lodged a complaint after Facebook failed to comply with Russia’s data localisation legislation, Federal Law No 242-FZ, adopted in December 2014 and came into effect on 1 September 2015.

According to this legislation, all companies that accumulate, store or process the data of Russian citizens must do it in servers located inside Russian borders.

However, authorities have rarely ever enforced this law. According to a ZDNet report, a LinkedIn ban in Russia in 2016 was the most high profile case under this law.

Interfax, the Russian news agency that had reported the story first said that Facebook did not represent itself in the court.

(With inputs from ZDNet and Interfax.)