Apple fined in Russia for paying in the App Store. What will happen now

If you have watched Billions, you have probably seen how corporations and their successful owners find ways to avoid sanctions and fines from the state. However, in life, everything is not quite like that: the news about the fine from the Russian authorities had just faded away, as Apple again fell out of favor. True, for a different reason: the FAS considered that the American company was abusing its position in the application distribution market. Simply put, Apple wrote out penalty for payment methods in the App Store. If you think that the whole point is to disable these very payment methods, then you are mistaken. The investigation began a year ago and has nothing to do with what is happening. Let’s see why Apple fined once again.

ПОДПИСЫВАЙТЕСЬ НА НАШ ЯНДЕКС.ДЗЕН, ЧТОБЫ ПЕРВЫМИ УЗНАВАТЬ ГОРЯЧИЕ НОВОСТИ

Court against Apple in Russia

Apple is regularly fined around the world, in particular, in Russia. Basically, the violations are related to antitrust laws: two years ago, the FAS found out that the company is a monopolist in the iOS applications market, which, it would seem, is logical, but not entirely legal. Apple limited the development of some applications, in particular, did not allow the distribution of programs with parental control functions: because of this, the App Store didn’t launch the app from Kaspersky Lab — similar to Screen Time in iOS, which met all the requirements of the App Store. This is really strange, because Apple does not prohibit other browsers, players and instant messengers from being placed in the app store, other than those built into iOS.

It’s not the first time the App Store has given Apple a headache

In 2022, the story with the App Store repeated itself, only now it is connected with payment in the App Store. It became known that one of the points for consideration of applications in App Store bans developers inform app users about the possibility of paying for purchases outside the App Store. In addition, Apple required developers to remove links to external sites and any mention of them – all so that you do not get there and accidentally find out about a cheaper subscription.

Суд может отнять у Apple все её деньги в случае ухода из России и раздать пользователям

Simply put, you have to pay for purchases exclusively in the application, which is much more expensive due to the App Store commission, which is 30%. So a subscription in the application due to requisitions can cost 199 rubles, while on the site they charge an order of magnitude less for it – 169 rubles. In addition, the sites always have additional bonuses in the form of a promo period.

Many developers, for example, Spotify, Tinder and Epic Games, advocated a reduction in commission, but only a few exceptions were achieved: this way developers could get into a program where the commission was reduced to 15%, but if the earnings from the application exceeded $ 1 million, then it returned to the previous level.

Все приложения, пропавшие из App Store из-за санкций, теперь доступны в нашем каталоге

Apple fines

In fact, Apple fines for violating antitrust laws – a phenomenon as constant as the snow in October. Last year, South Korea passed a law banning Apple and Google from restricting app developers to built-in payment systems. The Cupertino-based company said the law would expose users to fraud and undermine privacy protections.

Apple is getting fined and fined because of the App Store. When will it end?

But how so? After all, Apple thoroughly checks applications before publishing, and conditional links to payment can only lead to a site that is the same version of the application and does not differ in functions. No, there is no question of any privacy protection: the company just wants to earn money, because its App Store revenue grow quarterly.

Monopoly Apple is also bad because it does not allow iOS and iPhone in particular to be a more convenient platform: the company still does not provide access to the NFC module, fearing that users will use other payment methods, and profit due to lack of Apple Pay fees falls multiple times. In addition, it is believed that Apple uses a commission to limit the choice of users: in any case, Spotify is sure of this, noting that in this way Apple Music imposes on users only the music that it considers necessary.

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There is no doubt that the FAS did the right thing and the law is on the side of users. On the website of the department celebratedthat the company expects a turnover penalty, which will be determined during the investigation. Forbes notesthat the size of the fine can reach 2% of the proceeds, which in the current realities can amount to several hundred million rubles. With foreign corporations in 2022, the conversation is short and they can’t get off with a warning: just remember that Google was recently fined almost 22 billion rubles.