Apple Fined $12.12 Million By FAS Over Alleged App Market Abuse
The FAS has asserted that Apple has abused its Russian market dominance. Apple, the US tech giant has paid a 908 million USD fine in a Russian antitrust case. The case alleged the abuse of its applications in the mobile apps market.
Apple, the US tech giant has paid a 908 million USD fine in a Russian antitrust case. The case alleged the abuse of its applications in the mobile apps market. The news has been revealed by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) on the respective telegram channel today.
Apple has declined to comment on the matter, and the tech giant has stated that it has even previously rejected the FAS ruling. The latter said that Apple’s distribution of applications through the iOS operating system allows its products a competitive advantage over the others.
The FAS has even asserted that Apple has abused its Russian market dominance. The former has then issued a ruling that required Apple to remove the provisions giving in the right to reject third-party applications from the app store.
Apple has previously limited the sale of its products in Russia a year ago after Moscow sent its arm forces to Ukraine, and has restricted the Apple pay service to Russia.
The case against Apple was started by the Kaspersky Lab. It is a cyber security firm that has mentioned a national security threat by the United States in 2022. The firm has even stated that in 2020 Apple had restricted access to its newly-developed parental control application as the tech giant was determined to launch a similar kind of application.
Previously, Apple has denied all the allegations that pointed it to having an unfair position in the Russian Market. It has appealed the decision to change, but the court has upheld the ruling.
They have even enforced an Anti-Apple law. It is a controversial bill that has been introduced in an attempt to promote Russia’s tech companies, But the critics have condemned the act as an attempt to tighten state control of the internet.
Apple no longer enjoys prominence in the Russian tech market, Chinese brands emerge as key players:
Hundreds of global brands have fled from Russia in light of the war with Ukraine in the previous year. It has resulted in Russians looking for alternatives to such brands. Industry data has revealed that the Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi and automaker Geely have made their position in the Russian market. Models from Xiaomi and another brand Realme have reached the top position in the chart.
Chinese manufacturers previously exerted their dominance in the Russian market accounting for 40 percent of the smartphone market. Now, they have swept over completely accounting for 95 percent of the market. Samsung and Apple- the key players in the Russian smartphone market have seen their decline from 53v percent to 3 percent in the same period as they backed out from the country.
The Ukraine invasion by Russia has allowed Chinese manufacturers, and they have rightfully utilized so. Data stated that the budget smartphone brands owned by the Chinese giants such as Realme, Xiaomi, and Honor had increased their shipments to Russia by 190, 39, and 24 percent respectively in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the last quarter.
Xiaomi has been the strongest beneficiary that has doubled its market share throughout the year. It has made the Beijing-based company the top seller of smartphones in Russia because of the affordable range of devices.
It is not the first time that Apple has landed in turmoil. There has been a potential fine of 39.4 billion USD as the European Commission has declared that Apple Music has breached the anti-trust law, which concerns the developers advertising their subscriptions.
The EC has even filed a statement of objections for Apple in 2021 and has mentioned that the American tech giant has defied the antitrust regulations.
The tech giant has even been fined for selling iPhones without chargers on October 2022 for a value worth 20 million USD. It has been called an abusive practice that causes customers to purchase an additional product.
The decision was previously appealed in the Brazilian court, which slapped a 2.5 million US fine on the tech giant in September and has barred the tech giant from selling iPhone 12 and 13 models without chargers.
Previously, the FAS fined 17.4 million USD for defying the anti-monopoly legislation. The regional administrative court in Italy canceled the antitrust fines that were imposed on Apple in October of the previous year.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
