Apple Pay in Russia: Suspension of service leads to lawsuit against iPhone maker

Apple Pay in Russia was last month suspended by the Cupertino company as one of a range of sanctions against the country for its invasion of Ukraine. A class action lawsuit has now been filed against Apple, arguing that Russian consumers have been harmed by losing access to the electronic wallet service.

Russian citizens who have been affected by the withdrawal of Apple Pay in the country are being invited to join the case …

Background

Apple Pay service in the country was suspended back in February as part of US sanctions against five Russian banks.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US government and the European Union imposed economic sanctions on the country – which include restricting foreign transactions to Russian banks. As a result, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets have been suspended in Russia […]

The affected banks are: VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, and Otkritie. The Central Bank of Russia notes that cards issued by these five banks no longer work with Apple Pay or Google Pay, as both platforms are US-based.

Shortly afterwards, Apple halted all sales in Russia’s online Apple Store, and ceased supplying all Apple products to resellers in the country.

Lawsuit over suspension of Apple Pay in Russia

RepublicWorld reports on the lawsuit.

Lawyers from Chernyshov, Lukoyanov and Partners (CLP) law firm have decided to file a case against Apple for closing its payment service Apple Pay on devices in Russia […]

Konstantin Lukoyanov told TASS that the law firm has decided to sue Apple as the rights of Russian consumers have been violated by the “unjustified” and “unilateral” shutdown of Apple Pay.

According to the attorney, the move by the company needs to be considered as “intentional moral damage” to Russian users and owners of Apple devices. The attorney asserted that the recovery amount needs to be substantial for compensating the damage caused to the Russian consumers by the decision of Apple […]

Anyone who thinks that their rights were violated by Apple’s decision and it needs to be held “responsible” for its actions, can contact the law firm and join the lawsuit against the company. 

9to5Mac’s Take

The lawsuit seems unlikely to succeed, even in Russia, as the suspension of Apple Pay is a direct consequence of US government sanctions against Russian banks. In other words, Apple couldn’t legally offer service there even if it wanted to.

It is an unfortunate fact that innocent Russian citizens are suffering in many ways as a result of sanctions, but the loss of Apple Pay hardly ranks among the significant ones – and the remedy is in the hands of Putin, not Apple.