FAS, YANDEX AND THE COMPLAINANTS CONCLUDED A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

FAS, OOO Yandex and the complainants concluded a settlement agreement in the trial and terminated the antimonopoly case.

Earlier FAS initiated a case against the company on the grounds of violation of antimonopoly law. Yandex favored the services of Yandex corporate group in its own search engine.

Yandex recognized the validity of the warning issued by FAS and complied with its provisions. In particular, as a result of the interaction of the companies participating in the antimonopoly case, the policy, conditions and technical requirements for the integration of partners into the Yandex search engine have been published. Their requirements are open and uniform for all market participants, including the company's own services.

Moreover, FAS will monitor the execution of the settlement agreement and regularly analyze the work of the search engine. Yandex also undertakes to provide information for such monitoring to the authority on a regular basis. An independent audit of the impartiality of ranking and displaying data in search results will be conducted annually.

The applicants confirmed that the company had taken all necessary steps to eliminate discriminatory treatment in its search engine.

Yandex will also contribute 1.5 billion rubles to the Russian Information Technology Development Fund. This contribution will be used to promote Russian IT software products on the Internet. The RFRIT Development Institute is part of the VEB Development Corporation group. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation serves as the supervising agency.

“The purpose of FAS is to protect competition, to create non-discriminatory business conditions for all market players. The settlement agreement takes into account the position of each interested party. This document also confirms the possibility of self-regulation of digital markets in Russia. We managed not to delay the trial for years, but to jointly implement mechanisms that allow all market players to develop successfully”, Maxim Shaskolsky, Head of the FAS Russia said.