Apple purportedly pays Russian fine of about $13.65 million

Apple has paid a Russian fine of 1.2 billion roubles ($13.65 million), the Russian antitrust agency said on Monday, according to Reuters.

The fine concerned Apple’s App Store policies such as the mandatory use of its own payment system, the FAS agency said in a statement. FAS fined Apple over what it says is the U.S. company’s abuse of its dominant market position. This isn’t Apple’s first skirmish with the Russian government. 

In August 2023 a Moscow court fined Apple 400,000 roubles (about US$4,274) for not deleting “inaccurate” content about what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, according to the TASS news agency.

In March 2022 Apple stopped all sales at its Russian online store due to the country’s Ukraine invasion. 

In September 2022, the tech giant removed the iOS apps belonging to VK, the technology conglomerate behind Russia’s version of Facebook called VKontakte, from its App Store globally due to the latest round of UK sanctions on the country.

In February 2023 Apple had to pay a $12 million fine in a a Russian antitrust case alleging abuse of its dominance in the mobile apps market, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said.

On July 12, 2022, a Moscow court fined Apple 2 million roubles (about $33,900) for allegedly refusing to store the data of Russian citizens on Russian territory, the Interfax news agency reported. 

In July 2023, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that it cooperated with American spies to surveil iPhone users in the country. In a statement, Apple said it has “never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any apple product and never will.”

The RSS claimed that Apple works closely with US intelligence, particularly the National Security Agency. The attacks were linked to SIM cards registered with Russia-based diplomats for NATO countries, Israel and China, according to the statement.