According to the Russian edition of Forbes, on December 1, Apple filed a lawsuit against the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia. 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 the counterclaim to challenge the decision of the FAS will now postpone this date for the time of a new trial.
In addition to Apple's statement on the recognition of the non-normative legal acts of the FAS as invalid, the lawyers of the American company transferred to the Russian court a petition to attach additional documents to the case, which should further affect the process and show that Apple is acting within the framework of the country's legislative norms.
On October 27, 2021, the FAS announced the initiation of a case against Apple in connection with abuse of the dominant position in the iOS app market. 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 provides commission 15-30% from 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 paragraph 3 of part 1 of article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition." A previous injunction requiring the company to allow developers to provide users with links to third-party services to pay for purchases outside of Apple Pay will take effect in December this year. The company claims that it needs more time to provide technical support for the innovation.
In early September, Apple explained that it will allow apps with music, videos and books to not pay a fee in the AppStore. Apple has promised to allow developers of applications with music, videos and books not to pay a 30% commission in the AppStore. Developers will be able to add direct links to their own sites in their applications, where users can independently manage their profile and payments. At the same time, it is still impossible to sell subscriptions bypassing Apple. The changes will take effect early next year.
On August 30, 2021, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation issued a warning to Apple over the abuse of its dominant position in the iOS app market. The FAS demanded that Apple allow developers to inform buyers of applications in the App Store about alternative payment methods. The regulator gave the company a deadline until September 30 to rectify the situation.
On August 6, Apple agreed to change several rules for using the App Store in response to class action lawsuits from US developers. They complained that Apple was preventing small businesses from growing and asked to allow alternative payments in the app store. The company allowed developers to inform users about the possibility of alternative subscription payments, but not inside their apps in the App Store. If the buyer of the application agrees to transfer the data about his e-mail to the author, then the developer of the application can send users information about the possibility of paying for subscriptions outside the App Store.
On April 27, the FAS imposed a turnover fine on Apple in the amount of 906 million rubles (more than $ 12 mln) for violation of the antimonopoly legislation of the Russian Federation. The regulator subjected Apple to such an administrative penalty in the framework of the antitrust case initiated after the statement of Kaspersky Lab in March 2019, under part 2 of article 14.31 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. In August 2020, the department completed its consideration of this case and found that Apple had indeed abused its dominant market position. Apple also disputes this fine.
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