Apple surrenders one hour of profit to Russia for antitrust violations

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion
After failing to overturn a 2021 Russian fine regarding abuse of the App Store's alleged dominace, Apple has now paid the country's regulator $12.12 million.




This case is separate to the 2022 App Store antitrust fine, in which Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has said it will fine Apple $17.4 million. That case concerns forcing developers to use Apple's in-app payment system, and the $12.12 million fine relates instead to a specific complaint from Kaspersky Lab.

Following that firm's 2019 complaint that an app of its was being forced to reduce functionality because it competed with Apple's own Screen Time, the FAS investigated. In 2020, FAS first ruled that Apple owed $12 million in fines, but then agreed to delay the ruling until Apple had appealed.

Now according to Reuters, Apple has reportedly paid the fine. Apple itself has not commented, but FAS posted a statement on its Telegram channel saying: "Apple has paid a 906 million rouble antitrust fine."

Since the original ruling, Apple has ceased all online sales in Russia following the start of the Ukraine war.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 4,014member
    Hmmm. Guess they figured that if the EU gets away with this kind of economic extortion, they can too. 
    edited February 2023 rob53danoxwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 14
    mystigomystigo Posts: 183member
    Russia -that paragon of justice. They will certainly not think of more fines now that they have this one in the bank.
    StrangeDaysAnilu_777darelrexwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 14
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,954member
    Why doesn’t paying this fine to Russia violate sanctions. You know that the money will probably fund the war, that is if it hasn’t already been siphoned off by one of Putin’s cronies. 
    chadbagurahararavnorodomAnilu_777bonobobdarelrexwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 14
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,282member
    Trying to think like Apple--there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such. It's a difficult decision for Apple to shut down all sales to Russia (or any other country) just because of the person in charge. My hope is real Russians will stay with Apple once Putin goes away. $12M is not that much money to keep a foot in this country IF its citizens find a way to remove Putin.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 14
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 2,023member
    rob53 said:
    Trying to think like Apple--there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such. It's a difficult decision for Apple to shut down all sales to Russia (or any other country) just because of the person in charge. My hope is real Russians will stay with Apple once Putin goes away. $12M is not that much money to keep a foot in this country IF its citizens find a way to remove Putin.
    I think the shutdown of business is more related to sanctions compliance.   And like the comment above, I wondered how paying the fine doesn’t violate sanctions itself.   Maybe a Russian bank account for Apple was found to pay out of.  
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 14
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,033member
    Why pay a kangaroo court fine in a terrorist state? “Nah” is the appropriate response, preceeded by “Or what?”
    Anilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 14
    chutzpahchutzpah Posts: 392member
    Maybe Apple are worried that if they don't pay the fines to Russia then it exposes their "we follow the law in all the countries we do business in" line that they use as an excuse for kowtowing to China as a complete hypocrisy and lie.
    edited February 2023 beowulfschmidt
  • Reply 8 of 14
    uraharaurahara Posts: 733member
    rob53 said:
    Trying to think like Apple--there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such. It's a difficult decision for Apple to shut down all sales to Russia (or any other country) just because of the person in charge. My hope is real Russians will stay with Apple once Putin goes away. $12M is not that much money to keep a foot in this country IF its citizens find a way to remove Putin.
    It seems there are a lot of assumptions in your statement. Some of them:
    - as if you know what Apple (top management) thinks about doing business in Russia
    - as if those lot’s of consumers who buy Apple and support Putin are not a factor at all 
    - as if you can separate supporters from non supporters of violence and genocide 
    - as if the citizens will find a way to remove Putin (actually they (as a country) didn’t want to remove him for decades), as if they (as country) want to remove him (there are just too many supporters).

    Yeah, I am against of any corporation to do any business in a country like Russia who invaded the neighboring country (without any physical thread from Ukraine). 
    And I still love and buy Apple products… 
    Anilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 14
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,041member
    chadbag said:
    rob53 said:
    Trying to think like Apple--there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such. It's a difficult decision for Apple to shut down all sales to Russia (or any other country) just because of the person in charge. My hope is real Russians will stay with Apple once Putin goes away. $12M is not that much money to keep a foot in this country IF its citizens find a way to remove Putin.
    I think the shutdown of business is more related to sanctions compliance.   And like the comment above, I wondered how paying the fine doesn’t violate sanctions itself.   Maybe a Russian bank account for Apple was found to pay out of.  
    My guess is that the fine was levied against a Russian Apple subsidiary that has a Russian bank account.   Your line of reasoning makes complete sense and that is one of the reasons the Russian ransomware "services" are taking in considerably less money.  For example: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/ofac_ransomware_advisory.pdf 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 14
    prolineproline Posts: 223member
    rob53 said:
    there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such.
    Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Support for war is very high in Russia. The population is thoroughly brainwashed.
    netroxlkruppAnilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 14
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,954member
    proline said:
    rob53 said:
    there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such.
    Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Support for war is very high in Russia. The population is thoroughly brainwashed.
    On the CBC a week or so ago they were talking to a defence expert who was asked about opposition to the war inside Russia. He said that the thing we have to remember is that for the last century, the Russian population has been been fed stories about how the “West” wants to destroy Russian culture, people, religion, and everything. That the whole point of the west and in more recent years NATO is to invade and enslave the Russian people. So of course most of the Russian populace believe the invasion of Ukraine was for self defence. Of course they believe that there are NATO forces on the ground targeting Russian civilians. Of course they believe all the propaganda. Just like their parents did, and their grandparents did, and their great grandparents did, and…
    lkruppAnilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 14
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    DAalseth said:
    proline said:
    rob53 said:
    there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such.
    Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Support for war is very high in Russia. The population is thoroughly brainwashed.
    On the CBC a week or so ago they were talking to a defence expert who was asked about opposition to the war inside Russia. He said that the thing we have to remember is that for the last century, the Russian population has been been fed stories about how the “West” wants to destroy Russian culture, people, religion, and everything. That the whole point of the west and in more recent years NATO is to invade and enslave the Russian people. So of course most of the Russian populace believe the invasion of Ukraine was for self defence. Of course they believe that there are NATO forces on the ground targeting Russian civilians. Of course they believe all the propaganda. Just like their parents did, and their grandparents did, and their great grandparents did, and…
    Because they were raised in ignorance. That’s how authoritarian governments take hold. You know, like the U.S. population these days is getting its news from social media.
    edited February 2023 Anilu_777muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 14
    1348513485 Posts: 362member
    DAalseth said:
    On the CBC a week or so ago they were talking to a defence expert who was asked about opposition to the war inside Russia. He said that the thing we have to remember is that for the last century, the Russian population has been been fed stories about how the “West” wants to destroy Russian culture, people, religion, and everything. That the whole point of the west and in more recent years NATO is to invade and enslave the Russian people. So of course most of the Russian populace believe the invasion of Ukraine was for self defence. Of course they believe that there are NATO forces on the ground targeting Russian civilians. Of course they believe all the propaganda. Just like their parents did, and their grandparents did, and their great grandparents did, and…
    The Russians are not quite that naive in the last 20-30 years. They have traveled relatively freely, relocated relatively freely, seen and experienced "Western" vices and freedoms. They have western phones, food, clothes and cars, and no NATO nation has threatened their existence or fought wars on their territory. However, they are very cognizant of people disappearing overnight, or suddenly falling from their seventh floor window after a visit from unmarked vehicles and a squad of masked men, or rapidly dying from touching a doorknob. They know they have little power right now to overturn the path their government is on, and protests get them sent to the front.

    So they keep quiet. Don't confuse quiet for acquiescence.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 14
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,236member
    proline said:
    rob53 said:
    there are a lot of consumers in Russia who are not like Putin and who shouldn't be considered as such.
    Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Support for war is very high in Russia. The population is thoroughly brainwashed.
    There are plenty of people who don’t support the war in Russia and Belarus but not enough to turn the tide yet, but what can they do about it now, but be the first in line to die? The only thing they can do is bide their time. Putin’s time is coming to an end just like Qaddafi or Saddam Hussain.
    watto_cobra
Sign In or Register to comment.