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Russia has followed regulators in many other parts of the world in ruling that Apple has abused its dominant position.
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined Apple $17.4m, the regulator said on Tuesday, claiming that the bigtech company had abused its dominant market position.
The regulator said in a statement that it had previously found that Apple forced Russian developers to use Apple's payment services within the iOS App Store, in violation of Russia's competition rules.
The regulator also noted that Apple will need to pay the fine within two months.
Apple suspended services in the country following the invasion of Ukraine last year. This included shutting down access to the country’s payment system, Mir, when using Apple Pay.
Global action On Apple
Russia’s intervention is just one of many that Apple has faced over recent times as a slew of other regulators internationally have stepped up their activity on in-app payments.
The EU’s new Digital Markets Act, for example, outlines that a so-called “gatekeeper” (a definition that Apple is in scope of) cannot require “end users to use, or business users to use, to offer, or to interoperate” with a payment service, or technical services that support the provision of payment services.
In March 2022, meanwhile, South Korea introduced new rules that ban dominant market operators from mandating the use of their payment systems.
And in 2021, the Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) fined Apple €50m and declared that the tech giant must adjust the conditions for access to the Dutch version of the App Store for dating-app providers.
Dating-app providers must also be able to use payment systems other than Apple’s payment system in the App Store, according to ACM.
Apple adhered to this, but said that it would lobby the country’s competition authority on the matter.
This resulted from a dispute triggered by online dating company Match, which has gone on to push for a similar case in India, suggesting that consumers may wish to use a different payment method on the App Store.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is now investigating Match’s concerns about payments in the App Store as part of a wider probe following other allegations from a non-profit organisation called Together We Fight, which have the stated aim of “fighting big tech and promoting transparency”.
The non-profit argues that the in-app purchase system harms competition by raising costs for app developers and customers, while also acting as a barrier to market entry.
