Russia starts an investigation against Apple
The SFA is evaluating the alleged abuse of dominant position within the distribution of software applications for its operating system
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) has initiated a formal investigation into the allegedly anti-competitive practices developed by Apple and its abuse of a dominant position in the distribution of software applications for its operating system, the Russian supervisor announced.
Thus, the Russian antitrust authority responds to the complaint raised by the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, which denounced the unjustified rejection by the US multinational of versions of the parental control program ‘Kaspersky Safe Kids’ (KSK), losing a significant part of its functionality to the new version of KSK.
Apple also introduced its own ‘Screen Time’ application, which capabilities match those of parental control applications in version 12 of its operating system, says the FAS.
“Having studied all the materials, the FAS concluded that Apple’s actions to demand vague requirements from software developers and reject versions of software previously distributed in the App Store offer signs of Apple’s abuse of its dominance position in the iOS application distribution market”, says the Russian supervisor.
Apple announced at the end of last April the withdrawal of several parental control applications from the App Store because they considered that they put at risk the privacy and security of users by making use of a very invasive technology called Mobile Device Management (MDM) that provides third parties with control and access to a device, as well as its most sensitive information, such as user location, app usage, email accounts, camera permissions and browsing history .
“When we discovered these breaches of our guidelines, we contacted the developers of the apps and gave them a period of 30 days to send an updated version with the intention of not interrupting their availability in the App Store. Some sent updated apps that complied with our policies. Others did not, so we removed their apps from the App Store”, said the US company..
K. Tovar
Source: Diario Digital
