The Court of Justice of the European Union has refused to lift sanctions against Russian telecom operator MegaFon. The decision was made on 15 January.
The case in court has been ongoing since 2023, when, in February, MegaFon was added to the tenth package of EU sanctions.
In court, the company argued that roaming services provided in the regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Crimea, “contribute to their integration with Russia,” denied providing telecommunications services to Crimea and selling SIM cards, and disputed claims that it had entered into contracts with Russian military authorities.
However, the court did not accept these arguments. The court relied on publications in Ukrainska Pravda and data from a Polish-based think tank as evidence.
MegaFon is one of the largest telecom operators in Russia. According to the company’s report for the first half of 2024, the number of MegaFon subscribers amounted to 77.26 million. In the first half of 2024, MegaFon earned a net profit of about 26 billion rubles (about 260 million euros).
