Russia’s competition watchdog has ordered Apple to pay a €14.6 million fine for including unlawful anti-steering provisions in its contracts with app developers, a month after a court in Moscow allowed the company to challenge the agency’s original infringement decision.
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service yesterday fined Apple 1.1 billion rubles for including an anticompetitive clause in its contracts with Russian iOS app developers that prohibited them from telling customers they can pay lower prices for products outside of Apple’s App Store.
The clause also stops developers from providing Apple customers with alternative payment methods, it said.
The authority’s fine comes six months after it issued an infringement decision against the company, which concluded that the clause breaches the country’s abuse of dominance rules.
The clause forces developers to remove links to third-party sources and change the functionality of their mobile apps so users are not led to external sites, it said at the time.
The FAS launched its probe into Apple’s anti-steering provisions in October 2021 following several complaints by competitors, including Russia’s main online platform services provider, Yandex.
The authority had previously warned that it would open a formal probe into the company if it did not remove the clause in August 2021. Apple failed to follow through with the agency’s request, although it announced in 2021 that it would change its anti-steering provisions the following year to resolve an antitrust probe into the same conduct by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission.
Those amendments did not assuage the Russian enforcer’s concerns.
In September, Apple appealed against the agency’s infringement decision before the Moscow Arbitration Court. The court is due to begin hearing the challenge on 7 February.
Meanwhile, the FAS has given Apple two months to pay the fine.
The company has faced scrutiny from enforcers and private claimants all over the world, who have challenged its App Store rules.
Epic Games has filed separate lawsuits against Apple in the UK, US and Australia for removing its Fortnite game from the App Store and imposing unfair conditions on game developers that prevented them from providing customers with alternative payment options.
The US District Court for the Northern District of California mostly rejected Epic’s claims in September 2021, although she did find that Apple’s anti-steering rules violated California law.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard the merits of Epic and Apple’s appeals against the decision in November, although a final ruling is still pending.
A trial in the Australian litigation is scheduled for 2024.
The European Commission has also accused Apple of abusing its dominance in the music streaming market, alleging in September 2021 that the company distorted competition by forcing app developers to use its own in-app payment system while stopping them from telling consumers about cheaper purchasing options.
Last September, Korea’s Fair Trade Commission reportedly launched its own probe into the company over suspicions that Apple collected roughly 350 million won (€254.1 million) in excessive commissions from domestic game developers.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets investigated and sanctioned the company for imposing unreasonable terms on dating app developers. Last April, Apple finally agreed to change those rules and let users of dating apps use an alternative payment system when making in-app purchases, after racking up €50 million in penalties for failing to comply with the agency’s infringement decision.
The company is also being investigated in Mexico. Local press reports revealed on Thursday that Mexico’s Federal Economic Competition Commission and the Federal Telecommunications Institute are examining whether Apple is exploiting its mobile ecosystem to prevent third-party app developers from distributing digital content.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Counsel to Apple
Melling Voitishkin & Partners
Partner Nadia Goreslavskaya in Moscow
Counsel to Yandex
Antitrust Advisory
Partner Evgeny Khokhlov in Moscow
