A Moscow court has imposed a fine of RUB 400,000 (approximately Rs. 3.5 lakh) on Apple for refusing to remove “inaccurate” content related to Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. This marks the first time Apple has been fined for such an offense, as reported by Russian news agencies.
Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment via email. Following Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Apple temporarily halted all product sales in Russia and restricted its Apple Pay service in the country.
Moscow has been engaged in disputes with major technology companies for years regarding content, censorship, data, and local representation. These issues have intensified since Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
In February, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) stated that Apple paid a fine of RUB 906 million (approximately Rs. 80 crore) in an antitrust case concerning the alleged abuse of its dominant position in the mobile apps market. At the time, Apple chose not to comment but had previously appealed against the FAS ruling, expressing respectful disagreement with the notion that Apple provides an unfair advantage to its own products by distributing apps through its iOS operating system.
Furthermore, the same court imposed a fine of RUB 3 million (approximately Rs. 26 lakh) on the Wikimedia Foundation, the owner of Wikipedia, for the same offense. Wikimedia has been fined multiple times and has consistently stated that the information complained about by Russian authorities is well-sourced and aligns with Wikipedia’s standards.
In another case, a Russian court fined Google, which falls under Alphabet, RUB 4 billion (approximately Rs. 380 crore) for failure to pay a previous fine related to alleged abuse of its dominant position in the video hosting market. This information was disclosed by the country’s anti-monopoly watchdog.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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