Court rejects Apple plea to invalidate FAS ruling on administrative responsibility and fine in app market abuse case

MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - The Moscow Arbitration Court on Tuesday rejected a plea by U.S. company Apple to invalidate and overturn a decision and order of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service dated July 29, 2022 on administrative responsibility, as well an FAS ruling dated January 17, 2023 on a fine of 1.2 billion rubles.

"To refuse entirely to recognize decisions and actions (inactions) as illegal," says information on the court's website.

Third parties are Yandex LLC and the Internet-Video association.

The FAS in July 2022 deemed Apple to have violated antimonopoly law. "An FAS commission found Apple guilty of abusing its dominant position in the iOS app distribution market," it said.

The FAS in January this year imposed a fine of 1.2 billion rubles on Apple for app market abuse. Last July, the regulator, which identified the American company as a violator of the anti-monopoly law, said that the fine would be based on turnover and amount to 0.01%-0.15% of the company's annual turnover in Russia.

The regulator has been conducting a case against Apple since late October 2021. Previously, the service issued a warning to Apple to remedy a violation associated with the inability of users to pay for goods in applications from the App Store product catalog using external links.

The FAS said at the time that Apple actions restrict developers in their standalone activities and could result in higher prices for their products.