The right to be forgotten: the owner of Alpari retail network cleans the Internet

The owner of the group of brokerage companies Alpari and ForexTime Ltd (FXTM) Andrey Dashin demands to block a number of search links with false information about itself. As it became known to Realnoe Vremya, he appealed to the Kazan court against Google and Yandex.

Summons from abroad

The Privolzhsky district court of Kazan has been scratching their heads to find out how to properly notify the California headquarters of Google Inc. about the lawsuit of the Russian citizen. Already in the summer, the lawyers of the owner of the group of companies Alpari Andrey Dashin presented in the court their claims to the two largest operators of search engines. But the process did not go further than preliminary hearings as one of the defendants did not appear at the hearing at all.

Google from the Moscow office replied to the court’s appeal that they were not competent to resolve such issues and offered to send the summons across the ocean. The Privolzhsky court had not faced such difficulties on the part of the notice of the parties before, in the end on 9 October at the preliminary hearing it was taken the decision to postpone consideration for a month. Maybe the answer from the US would come.

There were no such problems with the second, Russian, defendant. Although, as Realnoe Vremya was explained in the court, the Yandex representatives asked to leave Dashin’s lawsuit without consideration because the plaintiff did not comply with the pre-trial procedure for settlement of such disputes.

Yandex representatives asked to leave Dashin’s lawsuit without consideration because the plaintiff did not comply with the pre-trial procedure for settlement of such disputes. Photo: Irina Plotnikova

As for Dashin, he did not come in the court, but no one insisted. His lawyers asked the court to oblige the operators of search engines ”to stop the issuance of the data about the index page on the Internet”, listing the web links that enable the access to the information with reference to the plaintiff. However, the question was not about the full cleaning of the Internet.

How a student-accountant becomes global broker

Andrey Dashin is 42. He was born in Kazan, graduated from the Kazan State Finance and Economics Institute (KSFEI), in speciality Banking. As a first-year student, he got a job as an accountant in a jewelry company, and a year after — in foreign exchange department of Mezhkombank. After graduation he got the job in the Tatarstan branch of LUKOIL. In the late 1990’s, he began to study the Forex market and then in the dealing centre Alpari he began to teach others. In the 2000s, he moved to Moscow, the offices of the company began to open throughout the country. By 2016, Alpari already controlled a third of the Russian market of Forex brokers services and became one of the leading players in the global market.

Andrey Dashin decided not to comment on his appeal to the court. He forwarded the questions to the press-service of the group of companies Alpari, where the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya was informed that February’s court decision was executed. The lawsuit against Google and Yandex became the next step.

By 2016, Alpari already controlled a third of the Russian market of Forex brokers services and became one of the leading players in the global market. Photo: dashin.ru

”The appeal to the court is aimed at preventing the spread of untrue information about the company and misleading market participants. Such interaction of business and law is a common international practice and, fortunately, finds a successful application in Russia,” the press service informs.

Censorship in the network: Skrynnik’s victory and the Streisand effect for Prigozhin

In Russia the law on ”the right to be forgotten” (The federal law No. 264-FZ dated July 13, 2015 ”On amendments to the Federal Law ”On information, information technologies and protection of information” and the articles 29 and 402 of the Civil procedural code of the Russian Federation”) came into force on 1 January 2016. It clearly states that at the request of the citizen the search system operator ”is obliged to stop issuing” of links enabling to get access to the following information about the applicant: disseminated in violation of the law; inaccurate; out of date, lost significance for the applicant.

An exception was made for information about the events ”containing elements of criminal acts, the terms of criminal liability of which have not expired yet”, and the data on a committed crime, ”for which a previous conviction has not been released or spent”. In the case of rejection of the operator, the citizen is entitled to go to court. In other words, in certain conditions even links to unpleasant truth can be blocked.

One of the first one in Russia who took advantage of the new law was authoritative businessman Sergey Mikhaylov, according the claim of whom Yandex and Google removed 172 search links to the pages where his name was mentioned in connection with the activities of organized crime groups at their request ”Sergey Mikhailov Mihas”, ”Sergey Mikhailov Solntsevo” and so on.

Evgeny Prigozhin declined the claims to Yandex and Mail.ru after the coverage of the trial in the media led to an astronomical growth of those who became interested in the mentioned publications. Photo: rbc.ru

In August 2017, former minister of agriculture of Russia Elena Skrynnik won Yandex — the Moscow regional court upheld the decision of the district court requiring the search engine to stop sending web users to the links on publications about the alleged criminal case for money laundering in connection with the case of Rosagroleasing. In this case, the minister of agriculture was only witness. After the arrest of her former deputy Alexey Bazhanov, the Prosecutor General’s Office asked for Swiss associates to check his foreign accounts, and those became interested in the accounts of Skrynnik as well. In the end, the amount of $61 million was seized, which was removed just this summer.

But the owner of the corporation Konkord and billionaire Evgeny Prigozhin declined the claims to Yandex and Mail.ru after the coverage of the trial in the media led to astronomical growth of those who became interested in the publications about the contracts won by Prigozhin’s companies for the defense ministry of the Russian Federation and financing activities of the ”troll factory”. The similar result in the media was called the Streisand effect. In 2003, Barbra Streisand demanded a photographer $50 million for publishing pictures of her house. If before the claim the pictures were downloaded from the website six times (two of them — by lawyers of the actress), but then the defendant-photographer told about a million visitors to his website and reprints worldwide.

By Irina Plotnikova