A significant legislative step has been taken in the Russian Federation impacting the technology market. President Vladimir Putin has formally signed into law a requirement mandating the mandatory pre-installation of the domestic application store, known as RuStore, on all smartphones and tablets sold within the country`s borders.
The law extends beyond simply requiring the presence of RuStore. It strictly prohibits manufacturers from imposing any conditions that could restrict or render impossible the use of Russian applications or the unified application store itself. This includes measures that might impede searching for, updating, managing settings for, interacting with consumers, or sending notifications through these domestic platforms. Furthermore, the legislation explicitly ensures that all device owners must possess the capability to make purchases using Russian payment systems.
While official explanatory notes accompanying the law state that RuStore is already commonly found on devices utilizing the Android operating system, the new regulation appears particularly targeted at addressing practices by “certain other manufacturers.” The documentation specifically identifies Apple, citing the company`s licensing agreements with users and developers as establishing various restrictions. The law is designed to remove these perceived limitations, thus ensuring that domestic software has guaranteed visibility and functionality on all platforms sold in the Russian market. One might observe this move less as fostering open competition and more as ensuring a specific, domestically controlled channel remains accessible.
This legislative requirement will take effect for all relevant devices imported into the Russian Federation starting from September 1st of the current year. For global technology companies, this represents a direct government intervention in their product distribution and software ecosystems within a major market, necessitating adjustments to their standard configurations and potentially challenging long-held control over their platforms.
Finley Holt