The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation has opened a case against Apple. The company is accused of abusing its dominant position in the market. Now Apple faces a fine for prohibiting developers from informing users about alternative payment methods outside the App Store.The FAS announced this on its website on October 27.
The case was initiated because Apple did not fulfill the service’s requirement by September 30.
The American company had to make changes to paragraph 3.1 of the App Store guidelines. According to it, iOS developers cannot leave links to third-party Internet resources for making in-app purchases outside the App Store.
Recall that on August 30, the FAS issued a warning to Apple after receiving complaints from users and developers. The service saw in the company’s policy “signs of abuse of a dominant position in the market of distribution of applications for iOS.”
If Apple is still found guilty of violating the Law on Protection of Competition, it faces a turnover penalty from the amount of revenue in the market.
This week, the American company has already made a number of changes to the App Store guidelines. One of them is related to the lifting of the ban on billing — now developers will be able to inform users about alternative payment methods using emails.
However, this relaxation does not fully meet the requirements of the FAS. It is also unrelated to the lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games. According to preliminary results, the Cupertino company was obliged to allow developers to leave links inside applications to alternative payment methods outside the store.
In recent months, the pressure on Apple has increased in different countries. Now the company is facing an investigation in South Korea, and the Dutch authorities have recognized it as a monopolist. All this is directly related to the payment rules in the App Store.