10 Aug 2020 19:19

Russian regulator says Apple in breach of mobile apps market regulations

MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) has judged that Apple Inc. limited competition in the market for iOS-based mobile apps and abused its dominant position with respect to the developers of parental control apps, the regulator said in a press release.

The FAS opened the case against Apple in September 2019 following a complaint by Kaspersky Lab that that Apple had unreasonablly rejected versions of parental control software Kaspersky Safe Kids (KSK) and as a result a new KSK version lost a significant part of its functionalities.

"Apple occupies a dominant position with a 100% share of the market for mobile apps based on the iOS operating system because it is only legally possible to install such apps from the App Store," the FAS said.

It said Apple had since October 2018 pursued a consistent policy of "limiting instruments and opportunities for the development of parental control apps as a result of which most of the functionality of third-party aps was lost." The policy coincided with the launch of a pre-installed app from Apple itself with similar functions to the parental control apps.

The company reserved the right to switch off and block any third-party app from the App Store even if that app met all of Apple's specifications, the FAS said.

The FAS intends to issue Apple with an order to remedy the violations.

Apple said in a statement, seen by Interfax, that it respected the FAS but disagree with its decision and plans to appeal the ruling.