Apple has cut off contact – Kommersant FM
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The Federal Antimonopoly Service turned to Apple due to non-functioning contactless payment. Department suspects company in unfair competition. The FAS said that Apple has blocked the applications of most Russian banks and does not allow third-party developers to use NFC technology. The latter allows you to pay with your smartphone, but only through Apple Pay, which also does not work in Russia.
The operator of the Mir payment system also sent a complaint to the FAS. It has its own service for contactless transactions and cannot function without access to an NFC chip. At the same time, consultations on this matter are already underway in the European Union, and Apple may allow banks to use the technology.
Are there any chances that the corporation will accommodate Russian developers? Lawyer, partner of Digital & Analogue Partners Ekaterina Smirnova sees several obstacles: “If we removed sanctions restrictions, we could say that this is promising, and Apple will agree with the requirements of the antimonopoly service, since the company is forced to agree with them on the European market . But our situation is different: due to sanctions, Apple is not officially represented on the Russian market, does not supply iPhones, and so on.
And if you are not present in a certain market, then in fact you cannot limit competition in it. If I were Apple, I would defend myself primarily with this argument.
And then the FAS Russia cannot simply impose fines blindly. If the antimonopoly service comes to the conclusion that the interests of competitors in the Russian Federation are being harmed, then, most likely, a fine will be imposed. And I do not exclude that Apple may enter into a settlement agreement or pay this fine, because US sanctions authorities say not to supply products, but do not say not to comply with the court decision.”
Over the past year, Apple has twice paid fines imposed by the antimonopoly service. However, this does not mean that the company will comply with the department’s requirements and change its policy, says Sergei Ermolenko, partner at the Orlova\Ermolenko law firm. Moreover, it will not be possible to fine Apple twice for the same violation. “There are disputes, for example, with YouTube regarding discrimination against certain channels and restoration of access to them. They were fined, but access to the channels is still not restored.
What can be done about this? If we talk about Internet resources, you can block them, but you will not block the device. You can be fined. But in fact, it is possible to force a violator to behave in a certain way only if there is access within the jurisdiction to tools that allow this or that behavior to be implemented. For example, if you were ordered by court to demolish a fence, but you do not demolish it, in this case the state within this jurisdiction has an instrument in the form of the FSSP, which hires a bulldozer and demolishes this fence. And if all the infrastructure is located abroad, what will you do with it?
In addition, the Administrative Code does not allow for the same offense to be fined twice. If fines were issued with a certain frequency, this would also not allow achieving results in terms of behavior change. Perhaps the company will pay these fines regularly, but it will still not provide access to the NFC chip,” Ermolenko sums up.
At the same time, “Kommersant” reported, that the Ministry of Digital Development is preparing a bill that will oblige Apple to allow the installation of third-party applications. And in the State Duma they even talked about agreements with the corporation in this regard.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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