The Moscow court has imposed administrative fines on Blizzard Entertainment and MY.GAMES. This was reported by TASS, citing a statement from the court's press office.
Diablo IV
The fines were issued due to "failure to fulfill duties as organizers of information dissemination (OID) on the internet." Both companies are now required to pay 600,000 rubles to the Russian treasury.
The exact reasons for the developers' fines were not specified in the TASS material. However, based on the wording of part 1.1 of article 13.31 of the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offenses—which the developers violated—they most likely ignored multiple requests from Roskomnadzor to notify about starting operations as OIDs and refused to be included in the relevant registry. The App2Top editorial team indeed could not find Blizzard Entertainment or MY.GAMES in the OID registry.
To remind, companies listed in the registry are required to store data on users and their activities, including chat histories, in Russia for six months. They must also provide these data to the FSB and other authorized state bodies upon request. Services of violators face the risk of being blocked in Russia.
Representatives of Blizzard Entertainment and MY.GAMES have not publicly commented on the situation.