Antitrust slaps 1.2 bln rbl fine on Apple for pay tools restriction

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has fined Apple 1.2 billion rubles for imposition of its payment system on applications of the country’s developers, the authority said late on Tuesday.

“The company must pay this amount for abusing its dominant position. In July 2022, the watchdog found the company guilty of violating the antitrust law. Apple imposed the necessity to use the company’s payment tool in their applications on the Russian developers of applications for iOS,” the service said.

Applications store App Store’s rules banned the developers of iOS applications from informing the clients inside an application of an option to pay for purchases outside the store. Alternative means of payment were forbidden. Apple also forced the developers to erase links to their Internet resources, among others.

Apple must pay the fine during two months since the document comes in force.

(68.6644 rubles – U.S. $1)

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