Mintsifra proposed to oblige Apple to allow installation of applications not from the App Store

The Ministry of Digital Development has developed a bill that obliges Apple to allow installing applications on its devices not only from the App Store, but also from other stores. About this the head of the department Maksut Shadayev informed Interfax.

According to Shadayev, if following consultations with the State Duma, the issue turns out to be relevant, and the deputies support the initiative, then the department “will try to submit” the bill for consideration as quickly as possible. The draft can be submitted to the State Duma in the current (spring) session, but if you follow the standard procedure, the submission will not be earlier than in the autumn session.

“The Ministry of Digital Development is working on the fastest way to adopt it. And he hopes that he may even be in time for the spring session, ”Shadayev commented.

The ministry expects Apple to agree to implement the bill. Despite the fact that the company stopped supplying products to the Russian Federation, in January 2023 it paid a fine of 1.1 billion rubles. for abuse of dominance. In order to pay the fine, the company had to get approval from OFAC (a division of the US Department of the Treasury).

The bill is similar to the European DMA (Digital Markets Act), which requires Apple and other manufacturers to allow the installation of applications from various sources. This step is taken in the framework of the antimonopoly legislation.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, installing apps from other sources could be coming as early as iOS 17 at the WWDC 2023 developer conference in June.