100 Million Euro Fine for Yango: EU Accuses Former "Yandex" Structure of Data Transfer to Russia

The former joint venture of "Yandex" and Uber – MLU B.V., which operates the Yango service in Europe – has been fined €100 million. According to Yle, citing the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman of Finland, the data protection authorities of the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway jointly established the fact of unlawful transfer of users' personal data to Russia.

The investigation against the company, registered in the Netherlands, has been ongoing since 2023. Regulators checked how Yango processes and stores sensitive citizen information.

MLU B.V. has already stated that it complied with all necessary protection measures under European legislation, including data encryption when stored on servers within the EU. The company emphasized that since 2025, its services in Norway and Finland have not been operating, and it plans to appeal the imposed sanctions.

The incident fits into the new architecture of transatlantic data regulation. After the separation of assets of Russian "Yandex" and the international Nebius Group, services like Yango become hostages of stricter control by European regulators over any cross-border digital flows, even in the absence of proven intent.