Despite the company's appeal, a Russian court has upheld a $12 million fine against Apple for alleged in-app payment App Store dominance abuse.
A Russian court has rejected Apple's appeal against a 1.2 billion rouble ($12 million) fine imposed in January for alleged abuse of its dominant market position in in-app payments. The fine was originally imposed by Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), which claimed that Apple had violated competition rules by compelling Russian developers to use its payment services within the iOS App Store.
Apple faced the threat of an antitrust suit as it was accused of blocking developers from connecting users to external payment options, also known as "steering." The company was ordered to comply with the request by September 2021, and Russia filed a lawsuit in October.
Apple appealed for a judicial review days after removing its anti-steering provisions from the App Store rules.
In April 2022, the court dismissed Apple's case, giving the Russian FAS grounds to continue to investigate Apple's App Store practices.
As Reuters points out,, the fine's value in dollars has decreased due to the depreciation of the rouble since January, now amounting to more than $5 million less.