Russia: Announced FAS investigation into Apple's alleged removal of Russian bank's mobile applications from App Store

On 4 April 2024, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia announced an investigation into Apple's practices regarding the access of Russian payment systems to contactless payments on iOS devices. The investigation was opened following Apple's alleged removal of most Russian banks' mobile applications from the App Store and its restrictions on installing non-App Store applications, alongside the exclusive availability of NFC contactless payment technology for the Apple Pay system. The FAS claims that Apple’s actions rendered contactless payment systems such as Mir Pay, SberPay, and Tinkoff Pay unusable on Apple devices in Russia. The FAS Russia views these actions as potentially violating antimonopoly legislation by creating preferential conditions for Apple's applications and those from developers outside of Russia.