UPDATE: Russian antitrust screening market for Apple-like cases

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MOSCOW, Nov 24 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is checking the market for cases similar to the one opened against Apple, which is suspected of coordinating prices of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Director Igor Artemyev told reporters on Thursday.

“We’re screening the market…we have several cases: one on mobile phones, gadgets; there are other issues with Google; there is a case with Microsoft on an antivirus product,” Artemyev said.

The antimonopoly service paid attention to the IT market upon receipt of multiple complaints from customers, the official said.

“We’ve started checking the whole market to set things right. We’ve revealed some facts, now we’re working on more facts to know if it could be a serious case for court, or it’s still early to speak about it,” he said.

The antitrust service opened the case against Apple over signs of price coordination for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in August. The investigation proved that the bulk of local resellers had set the same prices for the devices from the start of sales and held them for some time.

The service also saw equal prices for other Apple smartphones, including new flagship iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

The watchdog’s Deputy Director Andrei Tsarikovsky said earlier in November that the service may make a decision by March on the case against Apple.

“(The suspected companies) have one type of practices for home and other practices for foreign markets…they’ve prepared bad practices for us. We see signs of business coordination from overseas when they, for example, order not to reduce prices below an indicated level,” Artemyev said.

“They’d be fined a U.S. $1 billion for such things in the U.S. And here they can do it. We tell them to behave as they do at home: don’t coordinate dealers (like Apple); stop imposing your software (like Google).”

In 2015, the antimonopoly service found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position on the local market of preinstalled application stores and forcing Android device manufacturers to install its Google Play in a tie-up with its other programs. The watchdog imposed several fines on the U.S. company, which is expected by the service to mend law breaches by November 28 under the menace of more punishments.

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