Russia launches formal antitrust proceedings against Apple

Russian antitrust regulator opened a formal case against Apple for failing to preinstall 2 applications: state-supported MAX communicator and Russian RuStore app store, reports Reuters.

The dispute has continued since 2019 erstwhile Russia passed a law requiring manufacturers of equipment to offer home applications on equipment sold in that country. In 2021, erstwhile the regulations came into force, Apple negotiated a compromise — users configuring a fresh iPhone in Russia saw a list of recommended Russian applications without their automatic installation. In March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Apple stopped selling and exporting products to the country and removed RT News and Sputnik News applications from stores outside Russia. In September of the same year, the company besides removed respective applications of the Russian technology company VK, citing British sanctions.

Last year Russia began requiring mandatory preinstalling of the MAX communicator on all fresh smartphones and tablets sold in the country, besides extending to Apple devices the work to install the RuStore store. Apple did not comply with any of these requirements. Tensions increased in June erstwhile Apple removed MAX from the Russian App store and later that period — respective more VK applications, explaining the request to comply with sanctions. It was this decision we had written about earlier on iMagazine that prompted the Russian national Antitrust Office to request Apple to explain the discriminatory treatment of native software by July 15. Apple reportedly partially adapted by allowing the preinstalling of the Russian search engine in iOS 26.6, but failed to implement the requirements for MAX and RuStore.

Report:

The Russian antitrust authority initiated proceedings against Apple after this U.S. technology company failed to comply with the informing regarding the pre-installation of the Russian news application MAX and the Russian app store on its devices," the state news agency RIA announced on Monday.

Now, after the company did not full comply with the earlier warning, Russia opened a formal antitrust case. It is not yet known what penalties would endanger Apple if the regulator considered that the company had infringed Russian competition law. For comparison, it is worth recalling that in 2024 Russia calculated that Google owed about $20 decillions (20 with 33 zeros) for expanding penalties for refusing to reconstruct YouTube-locked channels linked to the Russian state and Kremlin.

Apple has not yet commented on this.

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