Victor Ezeja
A Russian court has slammed a fine exceeding $11,000 on the United States cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, over its refusal to comply with a law that requires foreign companies to localize data of their respective Russian users or customers.
The court explained that the fine relates to the purported refusal of Coinbase to localize data on Russian nationals who use the crypto exchange platform.
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Coinbase’s non-adherence to Russia’s data regulations means the crypto exchange is guilty of an administrative offense under Part 8 of Article 13.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
This was contained in a local online news report which also disclosed that AIDA International was similarly fined for refusing to observe the country’s new data regulations.
Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media or the Roskomnadzor (RZN) has since May ending required foreign companies to “localize databases of Russian users.” Already, representatives of more than 600 foreign companies are believed to have complied with the requirement.
A few global corporate giants including Spotify, Apple, Whatsapp, Match Group (which owns Tinder), and Airbnb have been penalized for defying the requirement.
Passed in 2014, the data localization legislation is seen by some opponents of President Vladimir Putin as a weapon being used by the Kremlin against mainly Western organizations.
Telegram Messenger, the social media app founded by Russian-born entrepreneur Pavel Durov, was equally hit with a fine as per the local report. In August, Zoom Video Communications, which was founded in 2011 by the Chinese-American billionaire businessman Eric S Yuan, was fined more than $167,000 for repeatedly refusing to localize data of Russian users.
