FAS found Apple abusing its dominant position in the mobile apps market

On August 10, 2020, the consideration of the antitrust case initiated against Apple Inc. (parent company Apple, USA) at the request of Kaspersky Lab.

Investigation showed 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.

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.

The FAS Commission found that Apple abused its dominant position in relation to developers of parental control mobile applications and restricted competition in the market for distribution of applications on mobile devices running the iOS operating system.

The violation was also expressed in the establishment by Apple of the right to reject, not allow any third-party application from the App Store, even if it meets all Apple requirements.

Apple will be issued a ruling with requirements to eliminate violations.

“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,” said Aleksey Dotsenko, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia.

Note:

According to part 1 of article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, actions (inaction) of an economic entity occupying a dominant position are prohibited, the result of which is or may be the prevention, restriction, elimination of competition and (or) infringement of the interests of other persons (business entities) in the field of entrepreneurial activity or indefinite circle of consumers.