VK files lawsuit against Apple over removal of apps

VK sues Apple in Moscow court over app removals, seeks daily fines

Russian technology company VK Holding has filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against three Apple entities, according to the court’s case database. The lawsuit, filed on August 19, concerns the removal of VK’s applications from the App Store, VK told TASS.

The case names Apple’s main Russian legal entity, Apple Rus LLC, as well as Apple Inc. and Apple Distribution International Limited as defendants.

VK is seeking to require Apple to restore the company’s apps to the App Store, reinstate users’ ability to receive notifications from the apps, and pay a penalty in the event of failure to comply with the court’s ruling, VK said in a statement to TASS.

TechRadar reported that VK is demanding daily penalties of 58 million rubles (approximately $696,000) if Apple fails to comply, with the figure broken down across three services: VKontakte would carry 50 million rubles (about $600,000) per day, VK Music 5 million rubles (nearly $60,000), and Odnoklassniki 3 million rubles (close to $36,000). The daily fines would begin accruing six days after the court issues its final ruling, according to the report.

Background: EU sanctions and app removals

Apple removed a range of VK-owned applications from the App Store, including VKontakte, VK Messenger, VK Video, Odnoklassniki, Zen, Mail Cloud, Mail, Skillbox, and Youla, citing sanctions imposed by the European Union against VK and its messaging subsidiary, Communication Platform LLC, as reported by TechRadar. The EU sanctions accused VK and its messaging subsidiary of enabling surveillance, censorship, and the identification of government critics inside Russia.

The same titles later disappeared from Google Play as well, according to the same report.

Kremlin response

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov publicly demanded a formal explanation from Apple over the removals and questioned Apple’s reliability as a provider of commercial services in the Russian market, TechRadar reported.

Broader legal context

In a separate development, the Tagansky District Court fined Apple 500 thousand rubles (approximately $6,000) for a repeated violation of Russian federal legislation, according to TechRadar. The report also noted that a Moscow arbitration court ordered Google Ireland Limited to return more than $2.1 billion to Google’s bankrupt Russian subsidiary.