Apple subsidiary fined £390K for Russian sanctions breaches

Britain’s sanctions watchdog has fined a subsidiary of Apple £390,000 for payments it made to a Russian streaming platform.

Apple Distribution International (ADI) — a subsidiary used by Apple to pay developers on the App Store — sent two payments worth over £635,000 to Okko, a Russian streaming platform, in June and July 2022. 

Okko was previously owned by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, until May 2022, when it was sold to an “obscure” Russian company which was created two months before, alleged to be an attempt to shield it from sanctions. Sberbank was sanctioned by the U.K. in April 2022. 

The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation said that no breaches had been made by Apple Inc.

ADI, which is based in Ireland, voluntarily disclosed the sanctions breaches to OFSI. 

An Apple spokesperson said: “We follow the laws in the countries where we operate and take sanctions compliance extremely seriously. After identifying two payments to a developer that days earlier had become affiliated with a sanctioned entity, we promptly and proactively reported our finding to the UK government. We are constantly working to enhance our already robust compliance protocols, which are consistent with industry standards.”

This article was updated to include a comment from an Apple spokesperson.