According to Kommersant, Yandex and the Internet Video Association have filed a motion to bring them to court against the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia against Apple in connection with the abuse of their dominant position in the market for iOS applications. Apple received an instruction from the Federal Antimonopoly Service on the mandatory introduction in the App Store of the possibility of alternative payment methods in applications for iOS, but did not comply with it.
The Moscow court has already accepted and approved Yandex's petition to join the case. On December 13, the court will consider a similar request from the Internet Video Association, which unites online cinemas ivi, Okko, Megogo and others.
According to the description in the petition, Yandex and the Internet Video Association claim that this antitrust case affects their rights and interests of both application developers and content distributors.
The representative of "Yandex" clarified the publication of the company's position on this issue. Yandex believes that users should be able to learn about different payment methods, and the FAS case against Apple can help to implement this.
The head of the Internet Video Association specified that the FAS case against Apple is of fundamental importance for the Russian paid content market. According to him, Apple's commission in the App Store, for example, for renewing a subscription to an online cinema, is 30%. The association considered that tens and hundreds of millions of rubles go to Apple on this point of the App Store's mechanism of operation.
Industry experts and lawyers explained to the publication that the joining of new parties to the FAS case against Apple as technical witnesses could strengthen the FAS position in the proceedings. In their opinion, now Apple's lawyers will have to resist not only the explanations of the FAS, but also companies that understand the specifics of the mobile applications market can substantiate their arguments in more detail and give the court necessary examples and facts of violations of Russian legislation by Apple.
On October 27, 2021, the FAS announced the initiation of a case against Apple in connection with the abuse of a dominant position in the market for iOS applications. The company may face a billion-dollar turnover fine on the amount of proceeds in the Russian market for failure to comply with the anti-monopoly service warning within the prescribed period.
The FAS explained that in some cases it is cheaper to buy, for example, an e-book on the seller's website, since Apple has a 15-30% commission on each payment in the App Store. The company also prohibits developers from informing users of the application store in their programs about the availability of an alternative method of paying for goods or services in any way.
The supervisory authority found that such actions by Apple limit the independence of developers, which negatively affects competition and may lead to an increase in prices for their products or services. FAS believes that Apple violated clause 3 of part 1 of article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition".
On December 1, Apple filed a lawsuit against the FAS. The American company wants to cancel the order of the regulator regarding the mandatory introduction in the App Store of the possibility of alternative payment methods in applications for iOS. Technically, Apple was supposed to correct this violation by September 30, but a counterclaim to challenge the FAS decision will now postpone this date for the time of new proceedings.
bbabo.Net