Russia's FAS, or Federal Antimonopoly Service, has launched a formal investigation into Apple over alleged violation of antitrust laws about the App Store and Apple's restrictions that do not allow developers to link to third-party payment methods outside of the platform.
In August, FAS issued a warning to Apple to "stop violating antimonopoly legislation" by not inhibiting developers from directing users to make in-app purchases from outside the App Store, such as on the web. Apple "did not comply with the warning," according to a press release from the agency, and therefore a case has been opened against Apple on the grounds of violating antitrust laws.
"If Apple is found to be in violation of the Competition Law, it could face a turnover penalty on the amount of market revenue," the agency added. FAS stopped short of specifying how much a fine would be or under what timeframe.
Apple has already announced steps it plans to take early next year to ease App Store restrictions. As part of a deal to close an investigation in Japan, Apple announced in September that it would allow "reader" apps to link to external websites in their apps. These links to external websites can help users set up or manage an account.
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Sunday October 12, 2025 7:05 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to announce new products "this week," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple's "Mac Your Calendars" teaser last October
In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the products set to be updated this week include the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, and "likely" the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, with all three likely to receive a spec bump with Apple's next-generation M5 chip.
Gurman...
Monday October 13, 2025 8:25 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Buried in its announcement about "F1: The Movie" making its streaming debut on December 12, Apple has also announced that Apple TV+ is being rebranded as simply Apple TV.
A single line near the end of the press release states "Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity," though Apple's website has yet to be updated with any changes, so we're unsure on the details of the...
Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models.
In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB.
Like...
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips.
The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
Saturday October 11, 2025 6:59 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers are internally testing iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will likely be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released within the next few weeks.
Last month, Apple released iOS...
Tuesday October 14, 2025 11:59 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak today teased the launch of an upcoming product, saying "something powerful is coming" on social media.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
A short animation accompanying Joswiak's teaser reveals a brief glimpse of a MacBook Pro along with the words "coming soon." The shape of the MacBook Pro is a V, which is the Roman numeral...
Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by Juli Clover
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below.
MacBook Pro
M5...
Apple's AirPods Max have now been available for almost five years, so what do we know about the second-generation version?
According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new AirPods Max will be lighter than the current ones, but exactly how much is as yet known. The current AirPods Max weigh 0.85 pounds (386.2 grams), excluding the charging case, making it one of the heavier...
Saturday October 11, 2025 10:10 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still nearly a year away, a handful of new features and changes have already been rumored for the devices.
Below, we have recapped some of the early iPhone 18 Pro rumors so far.
Smaller Dynamic Island
The standard iPhone 18, iPhone 18 Pro, and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with a slightly smaller Dynamic Island, but the devices will...
Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:14 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple today updated the Vision Pro headset with its next-generation M5 chip for faster performance, and a more comfortable Dual Knit Band.
The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine, and we have confirmed the Vision Pro still has 16GB of RAM.
With the M5 chip, the Vision Pro offers faster performance and longer battery life compared...
Adding Russia to the list of market Apple should pulled out as suggested by MR comments.
So it is now, EU, UK, AUS, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia
In case anyone wondering why US is missing. Yes, US is the only country with an on going AntiTrust threat or cases that MR wont suggest pulling out of.
This is how govts get big tech to compromise their user's privacy. Pressure them on one front and promise to lay off when they capitulate.
Taken another way any company must comply with the lawful orders of govt or else withdraw from that market like what Google did in China ('https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/12/19/138307/how-google-took-on-china-and-lost/').
Hang on weren’t governments supposed to be providing infrastructure for society but were too incompetent or corrupt to do so and left it to corporate interests? Now they’re throwing in post-hoc regulation as an “oh yeah that” afterthought and pocketing a metric **** ton of cash from fining the corporates.
We can still choose the corporates we use and there is no monopoly I can think of other than government incompetence and greed.
UK here for ref.
It’s also the government’s obligation to enforce competition and keep the economy running stable and healthy now and farer in the future.
This is not only about Russia, Apple is running aground in the whole world. They can’t escape this, and moving out of a country here and there is not an option too. Specially since they are being hunt in their own country.
Apple IS acting anticompetitive, simply as that… same for Google… both in their different ways.
