RUSSIAN COMPETITION AUTHORITY HAS DETERMINED THAT APPLE ABUSED ITS DOMINANT POSITION IN MOBILE APPLICATIONS MARKET

19/08/2020

Russian competition authority Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS) decided that Apple has violated competition law by abusing its dominant position in relation to developers of parental control mobile applications and restricted competition in the mobile apps market.

FAS determined that Apple occupies a dominant position with a 100% share in the market for distribution of mobile applications on the iOS operating system, since it is possible to install such an application legally only from the App Store. Within the scope of the investigation, FAS made the following determinations and concluded that these practices were an abuse of the dominant position:

• Since October 2018, Apple implemented consistent policy on restricting the tools and capabilities for developing parental control applications. This, in turn, resulted in losing by third party developers of the most applications functionality,
• The implementation of this policy coincided with the release of the company's own pre-installed Screen time application, which has functionality similar to that of parental control applications,
• Apple has right to reject, not allow any third-party application from the App Store, even if it meets all Apple requirements.

FAS also stated that access to the App Store is the only possibility for application developers to distribute their products on the iOS operating system, and it is extremely important to create non-discriminatory conditions for market access to ensure competition.

As a result, FAS has determined that Apple abused its dominant position in the mobile applications market and announced that Apple will be issued a ruling with requirements to eliminate violations.

(FAS – 11-08-2020)

 

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