Tinder application icon on Apple iPhone X screen close-up. Thaspol Sangsee/ Shutterstock.

A Russian court has levied a 10m roubles ($104,000) fine on Match Group, owner of Tinder and streaming platform Twitch, for its failure to localise data.

The Federal Law on Personal Data requires Russian and foreign companies that collect Russian citizens’ personal data to use local data storage within Russia.

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Russia’s data protection regulator, Roskomnadzor, has stringently enforced the Data Localization Law with several high-profile fines since the beginning of the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war.

Notably, Roskomnadzor imposed fines on Facebook and Twitter in 2019 for failing to comply with localization requirements.

LinkedIn was also fined in 2019 for refusing to transfer the personal data of Russian individuals to Russian territory. LinkedIn was later barred from operating in the Russian Federation due to its non-compliance.

In July 2021, Roskomnadzor revealed that it had established administrative protocols against WhatsApp, a first-time offender, and, again, against Facebook and Twitter.

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A large number of digital services have already pulled out of Russia, including streaming giants Netflix and Spotify. 

In May, Match Group said in its annual report that it had plans to withdraw its dating apps Tinder and Hinge from Russia by 30 June. Rival dating platform Bumble withdrew from Russia and Belarus in March 2022, the BBC reported.

Friends Fiduciary Corp, a shareholder of Match, commented that Tinder had set an example for others by leaving Russia while bringing attention to the human rights risks Ukraine is dealing with. 

Last year, European police agency, Europol, also highlighted how Ukraine‘s dating apps were being hijacked for human trafficking purposes.