How did it all start?
In 2019, the FAS began an official investigation into Apple.
In August 2020
As a result, On April 26, 2021, the FAS of Russia imposed on Apple Inc. a turnover fine in the amount of 906,299,392.16 rubles (more than $12 million US) for violation of antimonopoly legislation.
Who filed a complaint against Apple and why?
The FAS investigation followed a complaint fromcybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said a new version of its Safe Kids app was rejected by Apple's operating system.
According to Kaspersky Lab, Appledemanded to limit the functionality of the Kaspersky Safe Kids parental control application, seeing in it risks of violating user security. Kaspersky Lab filed a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service about restrictions on the part of the American corporation on March 19, 2019. As the company noted, there have been no previous complaints about the application.
Kommersant notes that Apple itself introduced the Screen Time tool with similar functions in iOS 12.
The FAS investigation into Apple was conducted withMarch 2019 to August 2020. As a result, the company was obliged to remove from the documentation provisions that allow not to admit applications of other developers in the App Store for any reason, to prevent preferential conditions for programs of its own development, and also to ensure that developers of parental control applications can distribute them in the App Store without losing important functions until November 30, 2020. The company refused to do this.
However, the FAS decided - Appleviolates the law and yesterday announced a fine of almost 1 billion rubles. Why the fine was imposed right now is not specified. So far, the department has explained its decision by saying that the distribution of Apple mobile applications through the iOS operating system has given the company's own products a competitive advantage.
“Apple abused its dominant positionin the market for the distribution of mobile applications on the iOS operating system by performing a series of sequential actions that led to the provision of competitive advantages to its own products and the simultaneous deterioration of the conditions for the distribution of competitors’ products—parental control applications,” the FAS said in a statement.
What did Apple say?
After the decision was announced, the American companystated that it does not agree with the decision of the FAS of Russia. Apple is ready to challenge a fine of almost 1 billion rubles for abuse of its position in the market of mobile applications on the iOS operating system.
Apple respects the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, but does not agree with the decision and will continue to appeal it in the prescribed manner.
Apple press service for RBC
In its statement, the company noted that it is proudthe fact that tens of thousands of developers in Russia (including Kaspersky Lab) gain access to a billion Apple users around the world thanks to the App Store.
Also, company representatives said that togetherWe worked with Kaspersky Lab to bring the parental control application created by a Russian developer into line with the requirements of the child protection application store. “At the moment, this developer has 13 applications in the App Store, and we have processed and released hundreds of updates for them,” the company said.
Big conflict between Apple and developers
In July 2020 in Washington, D.C.The Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives held antitrust hearings regarding the App Store monopoly. Tim Cook had to testify. The fact is that the company has recently been increasingly accused of a monopoly takeover of the Apple ecosystem. Until recently, the media was involved in this, but now Apple is increasingly having to testify in antitrust policy commissions and in various other bodies of the United States and the European Union. But the matter has not yet reached the point of discussing the collection of a 30% commission with independent software developers for the Apple ecosystem.
At the same time, the creator of Telegram Pavel Durovonce again criticized Apple for the 30 percent commission that the company charges developers for posting applications in its App Store. According to the businessman, all Apple’s excuses on this matter are nothing more than myths, and users need to start defending their interests and fighting the Cupertino monopoly.
As a result, in September last year Applecanceled commissions for several developers. The pandemic has reportedly forced Apple to meet critics who have criticized the company for high fees in the App Store and eliminate the collection of a 30% “tax” on internal transactions in several applications. And yet, the solution was temporary, only until the end of 2020 - the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The big picture: Russia vs Western IT giants
In recent months, Western technology companies have come under increasing pressure in Russia, foreign media note, in particular…..
For example, on March 10, 2021, Roskomnadzor adoptedmeasures to slow down the traffic of the social network Twitter due to the refusal to remove content that the department considered illegal. As of April 5, the social network removed about 1.9 thousand of 3.1 thousand materials with child pornography, pro-narcotic and suicidal content that had not been deleted since 2017, prohibited in Russia.
At the same time, like Google, Facebook and TikTok fromAlphabet has come under criticism from Russian authorities. Earlier, Roskomnadzor sent letters to the management of Facebook and TikTok demanding that they come to explain the responsibility of these platforms for failure to remove calls for participation in illegal mass actions.
According to Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, violation of the procedure for restricting access to prohibited information by the owner of a website or information resource on the Internet entails the imposition of an administrative fine on legal entities in the amount of 800 thousand to 4 million rubles. The legislation also allows regulators to block prohibited information if it is not deleted (in accordance with Article 15.3 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technology and Information Protection”).
In March RKN demanded that Google removerestrictions on the Vesti Crimea YouTube channel. Officially, Roskomnadzor sent a letter to the management of Google LLC demanding that all restrictions be removed from the Vesti Crimea official YouTube channel as soon as possible, the department said in a statement.
As for FAS and Western IT companies, thenThis is not the first precedent with Apple this year. April 19, 2021 The Federal Antimonopoly Service opened a case against Google LLC. According to the agency, the company is abusing its dominant position in the YouTube video hosting services market.
The reason for the investigation wasthe statement of the Regional Public Organization "Center for Internet Technologies" (ROCIT), which complained about the actions of Google on the sudden blocking, deletion of accounts and user content on the video hosting YouTube.
FAS Russia established that the rules related tothe formation, suspension, blocking of accounts and circulation of user content on Youtube are opaque, biased and unpredictable. This leads to sudden blocking and deletion of user accounts without warning and justification of action. FAS Russia believes that such behavior may lead to infringement of the interests of users, as well as to the restriction of competition in adjacent markets.
As part of the consideration of the case, the FAS Russia will assess the actions of Google LLC and their consequences for users and content creators.
What's the bottom line?
Apple will not be seriously affected by the fine from the FAS Russia, Vadim Tkachenko, a lawyer, founder and CEO of the vvCube consulting group, told Izvestia.
“For the company, this is a serious sum, thoughforeclosure, but not critical. In the United States, she had fines and more serious, claims against the company were both from government agencies and from individuals, for example, disputes over applications and violations of intellectual rights, ”said Vadim Tkachenko.
According to him, the market in Russia is stillremains one of the most promising for Apple. The expert is sure that the company is unlikely to leave the country. At the same time, the specialist admitted that Apple could win the legal dispute by appealing against the fine.
At the same time, Apple's chances of challenging the fine$12 million in the court directly depend on the evidence collected and used as the basis for the FAS decision, as well as the presence of an administrative offense. Denis Kosenkov, partner of the Kosenkov and Suvorov law firm, shared his opinion in an interview for Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
“With our attention to large IT companies,such as Apple, the FAS of Russia is no different from the antimonopoly authorities of other countries - the expert notes - Turnover fines in large corporations are always associated with the payment of significant amounts. Of course, there are precedents for challenging FAS decisions in the courts,” the lawyer noted. However, he added that to do this, the court will have to look into whether there was an abuse of a dominant position and restriction of competition on the part of Apple.
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