Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has opened a case against American corporation Apple for failing to pre-install the domestic app store RuStore and the messenger Max on devices running iOS (iPhone and iPad), the regulator announced on Monday.
"The company did not comply with the FAS Russia warning regarding the pre-installation of the national messenger and the domestic app store on devices with the iOS operating system (iPhone, iPad). In accordance with the Law on Protection of Competition and the previously established enforcement practice against Apple, which has been confirmed by judicial instances, the service has opened a case against the company," FAS said.
In early July, the service issued a warning to Apple to eliminate discriminatory conditions for Russian search engines by July 15 and to comply with requirements for pre-installing domestic software on iOS devices, due to the fact that iPhones and iPads have a foreign search engine installed by default and users must change it manually. At that time, FAS also cited as another basis the failure to comply with legislation regarding the pre-installation of the national messenger and the domestic app store.
Apple reported that as of July 27, the updated software version includes the ability to pre-install a Russian search engine, but it did not comply with the warning regarding the messenger and the app store.
In June, the corporation removed Max from its app store, along with a pool of apps from the internet holding VK. After that, the Ministry of Digital Development appealed to FAS for an operational check on how Apple complies with Russian antimonopoly legislation, which requires that technically complex goods sold in Russia must ensure the ability to work by default with a Russian search engine or a search engine of another EAEU member state.
FAS notes that upon completion of the case review and if a violation of the competition law is established, Apple faces a fine in accordance with the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses. At the time of issuing the order, the service reported that the maximum fine could preliminarily be up to 4 billion rubles.
Since mid-July, Max and VK have been under EU sanctions, and their apps have also been removed from Google Play.