Russia’s antimonopoly agency fines Apple $12 million following complaint from Kaspersky Lab

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined Apple $12 million for abusing its dominant position in the apps market.

According to the regulator’s website, the fine was imposed following an investigation conducted at the request of the company Kaspersky Lab. The cybersecurity provider said that Apple had unreasonably diminished the functionality of the new version of its parental control app “Kaspersky Safe Kids” (KSK). At the same time, Apple introduced its “Screen Time” app to the market, which has similar functions. 

The investigation began in August 2019 and ended in August 2020. The FAS didn’t offer an explanation as to why the fine was imposed now.

The FAS also obliged Apple not to afford their own apps preferential terms in comparison with third-party applications, and to provide the developers of “parental control” apps with the opportunity to distribute their products via the App Store without losing important functionality. This order was contested in court and was suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.