Russia Hits Apple With $12 Million Fine for Antitrust Violation Allegedly 'Worsened Conditions for Competitors'

Urian B., Tech Times 28 April 2021, 12:04 am

While Apple has been fined again and again in other countries, one country that not many people hear about is now fining the company as well. Russian antitrust authorities have just recently fined Apple a whopping $12M for antitrust violations.

FAS Fines Apple

As reported by The Moscow Times, the massively popular tech giant has recently been sued by Kaspersky, another large cybersecurity company, due to the unfair treatment and an antitrust violation. The reason behind these fines is something that Apple has been getting as of late with different countries.

The FAS noted that Apple was found to have actually abused its dominant position when it came to the distribution of mobile applications on its popular iOS operating system through a number of its actions that resulted in a particular competitive advantage for its own products in comparison to other products. At the same time, this even worsened the whole distribution conditions for a number of other competing products against Apple.

Kaspersky VS Apple

The information was reportedly released originally from the official Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service, otherwise known as FAS. It also turns out that all the way back in 2018, Kaspersky was actually updating its offering, a Safe Kids parental control app, but was then reportedly met with unjustly blockings coming from Apple.

At the same time, Apple then reportedly released its very own competing feature, which the company reportedly called Screen Time as part of its iOS 12. Kaspersky has reportedly won the lawsuit, and the Russian court is now giving orders to the Cupertino giant to actually do more than just shell out the demanded fine, which is twelve million dollars.

Apple Claims Kaspersky is Putting User Privacy and Security at Risk

According to the story by PhoneArena, in addition to this, Apple will also reportedly be forced to change their very own terms and conditions to allow them to be able to "reject third-party applications" coming from the App Store for just about any reason, even if these apps would meet all of Apple's many requirements.

The court has currently ordered that Apple should make sure that its in-house apps will not take total precedence over the other third-party apps. Apple is now appealing the given fine and arguing that the company's reason behind blocking Kaspersky's Safe Kids had nothing to do with other competing services.

The company then claimed that the Kaspersky app was actually putting its "user's privacy" as well as security at risk through the use of "highly invasive technology." For those that aren't too familiar with Kaspersky, the company offers more than just Safe Kids but the whole anti-virus anti-hacker range of services. The company even offers VPNs and password managers for its users in order to provide an extra layer of security.

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Written by Urian B.