The fine was imposed due to the refusal of WhatsApp to pay previous fines under the same article. The penalties also apply to Tinder, Snapchat, and Spotify, as well as the portal Hotels.com.
The court issued 18 million rubles – this is the upper limit under the relevant article of the Administrative Code. Also, fines from 500 thousand to 2 million rubles were issued to Tinder, Snapchat and Spotify, and Hotels.com.
The maximum penalty imposed on WhatsApp for the non-localization of Russian data is a consequence of the service's refusal to pay a previous fine for the same violations. Previously, Zoom, Apple, Twitch, Pinterest, Airbnb, and other services were fined for non-localization.
To minimize the risk of blocking an Internet resource in Russia, we recommend assessing whether your organization meets the criteria for operating in Russia. If there are factors indicating that your activities are directed toward the territory of Russia, you should not only localize databases containing the personal data of Russian citizens but also comply with other requirements of personal data legislation and be ready for effective interaction with Roskomnadzor. We remind you that the law does not prohibit hosting personal data in the cloud.