9 Jun 2023 13:46

Russian Supreme Court rejects Apple plea to review case on restricting apps market competition

MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax) - Russia's Supreme Court on June 8 rejected a plea by Apple Inc. to review of a case brought by the Federal Antimonopoly Service on restricting competition in the AppStore apps market, according to court files.

Apple paid a fine of 906 million rubles related to the case at the end of February.

The FAS opened the case against Apple in September 2019 following a complaint by Kaspersky Lab regarding Apple's unreasonable rejection of versions of the Kaspersky Safe Kids (KSK) parental control program.

The FAS decided in 2022 that Apple was restricting competition in the app distribution market. It ordered Apple to remove provisions from its documentation that give the company the right to reject third-party apps for placement in their AppStore market.

The order was to be executed by November 30, 2020, but a stay was issued due to an appeal filed with the court, FAS said.

The FAS said at the beginning of February, 2022 that Apple had fully executed the instruction issued in 2020 after the investigation carried out on the complaint of Kaspersky Lab.

The regulator in April 2021 found Apple guilty of an administrative offense and fined it $12 million. The company challenged the fine in court, but the Moscow Arbitration Court at the end of May 2022 rejected the American corporation's plea and upheld the fine. That ruling was subsequently upheld by courts of appeal and cassation.