Reuters reports that Russia’s antitrust regulator has opened a formal case against Apple over the company’s failure to preinstall the state-backed MAX messenger and Russia’s RuStore app marketplace on its devices. Here are the details.
Since 2019, when Russia passed a law requiring device makers to offer domestic apps on products sold in the country, Apple and Russian authorities have been locked in a slow-boiling battle.
In 2021, when the law went into effect, Apple reached an arrangement under which users setting up a new iPhone in Russia would be shown a list of recommended Russian-developed apps, rather than having them installed automatically.
In March 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Apple halted product sales and exports to the country and removed the RT News and Sputnik News apps from App Stores outside Russia. That September, Apple also removed several apps belonging to Russian technology company VK, citing British sanctions.
Last year, Russia began requiring the state-backed MAX messenger to be preinstalled on all new smartphones and tablets sold in the country, while also extending its mandatory RuStore app marketplace requirement to Apple devices. Apple did not comply with either requirement.
Tensions escalated further in June, when Apple removed MAX from the Russian App Store, followed later that month by several other VK-developed apps. Apple said the removals were required to comply with sanctions.
This prompted Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service to order the company to address what it described as discriminatory treatment of domestic software by July 15. Apple reportedly partially complied by allowing a Russian search engine to be preinstalled on iOS 26.6, but it did not implement the requirements related to MAX and RuStore.
Now, as reported by Reuters, Russia has opened a formal antitrust case against Apple after the company failed to fully comply with that warning.
Russia’s anti-monopoly watchdog has opened a case against Apple after the U.S. technology company failed to comply with a warning related to the pre-installation of Russia’s MAX messaging app and Russian app store on its devices, state news agency RIA reported on Monday.
It is currently unclear what penalties Apple could face if Russia finds that the company violated its competition laws. In 2024, Russia calculated that Google owed approximately $20 decillion (20 followed by 33 zeroes) after years of accumulating penalties for refusing to restore Russian state-affiliated and pro-Kremlin channels blocked on YouTube.
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Marcus Mendes is a Brazilian tech podcaster and journalist who has been closely following Apple since the mid-2000s.
He began covering Apple news in Brazilian media in 2012 and later broadened his focus to the wider tech industry, hosting a daily podcast for seven years.
