Apple's legal team seems to be very busy lately, since the legal battles don't stop. We recently heard about her treatment which was filed by Epic Games for company policies in the App Store. There is still one from the European Commission for tax arrears.
The latest addition to this Apple list is a lawsuit filed by the Russian antitrust authority over the company's monopoly practices with iOS 12.
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) investigated Kaspersky Lab's allegations of disruption accessς σε ορισμένα API προγραμματιστών και τη φιλοξενία διφορούμενων εγγράφων με την κυκλοφορία του iOS 12 - το οποίο περιείχε το Screen Time - το 2018.
This led many apps, including Kaspersky's parental control app, to lose it functionaltheir capabilities, while Apple's Screen Time app continued to use iOS features that were no longer available to third-party developers.
Following an investigation by FAS Russia, found that Apple is guilty for abusing its market position.
A statement (translated) by FAS Russia states:
The company documents, which guide developers, contain ambiguous provisions, as well as provisions under which Apple may reject (prevent) any third-party application from its App Store, even if it meets all of the company's requirements.
After a thorough investigation of the documentation and technological features of iOS and applications, assessing Apple's actions, the FAS Russia Commission concluded that the company had abused its dominant position in the application distribution market for cell phones on operating system iOS.
Shortly afterwards, FAS Russia issued a correction order requiring Apple to remove any ambiguity from its documentation, which currently entitles it to reject applications for any reason, even if they meet all the requirements.
In addition, he ordered the Cupertino-based company to ensure that Apple applications do not override third-party applications and that developers can continue to create parental control applications and distribute them through the App Store without interfering with important Apple features. .
Apple has until November 30, 2020 to comply with this order. It must also notify FAS Russia of any changes it has made within five days of their implementation.
