RUSSIA OPENS CASE AGAINST APPLE OVER FAILURE TO PRE-INSTALL DOMESTIC APPS

Tue 04 August 2026:

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said Monday that it had opened a case against Apple over its failure to pre-install a domestic social media platform and app store on iOS devices.

In a statement on Telegram, the agency said Apple had failed to fully comply with a warning requiring it to remove discriminatory terms and conditions affecting Russian search engines and software.

“In accordance with the Law on Protection of Competition and previous law enforcement practice regarding Apple, which has been confirmed by the courts, the FAS has opened a case against the company,” the statement said.

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The antimonopoly service said Apple would face a fine under Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses if it were found to have violated the law.

“Apple announced that, as of July 27, the updated version of its software will include the ability to pre-install a Russian search engine,” the agency added.

In 2022, when the war in Ukraine broke, Apple stopped selling its products in Russia as part of the sanctions against the invading country. Apple also removed the RT News and Sputnik News apps from App Stores outside Russia, and later removed more apps developed by the Russian technology company VK.

Last year, Russia began requiring state-backed MAX Messenger and the RuStore app marketplace to be preinstalled on Apple devices.

Apple didn’t comply with these new requirements and further escalated things by removing MAX Messenger, one of the most popular messaging apps in the country with 50 million registered users, from the Russian App Store, earlier this June.

This prompted Russian authorities to order Apple to address this discriminatory behavior. The deadline was June 15. According to the Reuters report, Apple partially complied, preinstalling a Russian search engine on iOS 26.6 for iPhones operating in Russia.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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