Russia’s competition watchdog fines Apple $12 million for app market abuse

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said on Tuesday it had fined U.S. tech giant Apple $12 million for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the mobile applications market.

The FAS said Apple’s distribution of mobile applications through its iOS operating system had resulted in giving its own products a competitive advantage.

Apple said it disagreed with the ruling and that it would appeal in due course, the TASS news agency reported.

Western tech companies have come under increasing pressure in Russia in recent months.

Social network Twitter has been punitively slowed down over a failure to delete content Moscow says is illegal while Alphabet’s Google, Facebook and TikTok have all come under fire.