US technology giant Apple has paid a fine of 1.2 billion Rubles ($13.65 million) imposed for allegedly abusing its dominant market position in-app payments, Russia’s FAS antimonopoly service said on Monday.
Apple, which did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Monday, previously “respectfully disagreed” with the FAS’s ruling that distributing apps through the iOS operating system gave its products a competitive advantage. The Federal Antimonopoly Service said that the tech giant paid the fine on January 19 and that the funds were transferred to the Russian federal budget.
In February 2023, the FAS said that Apple paid a fine of about $12.1 million in another antitrust case alleging that the company abused its dominant position in the mobile application market.
Russia has been at loggerheads with foreign technology companies for several years, including over what Moscow considers illegal content and its inability to store user data locally, and these disputes escalated after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The tech giant suspended all sales of its products in Russia shortly after the start of the conflict in Ukraine and limited the Apple Pay service.
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