Samsung has made pre-installed Yandex applications indelible due to fears of violating the law

Samsung has explained to Kommersant why it has made Yandex’s applications installed on smartphones installed as part of the operating system update unremovable.

“The law requirements that came into force are unique for the Russian market; the industry has not yet had such experience. In the process of preparing for its execution, we concluded that the pre-installation of some applications in the “removable” mode with a high degree of probability could be regarded as a violation of the law, ”the press service of Samsung said.

According to the law, the manufacturer is obliged to provide non-discriminatory conditions for Russian applications. And for failure to comply with this condition, he will be primarily responsible.  

“We are constantly working to ensure the optimal balance between providing the best user experience and complying with the laws of the Russian Federation, and the law enforcement practice will clarify open issues in the subject of mandatory pre-installation,” noted Samsung.

After Samsung and the update of the operating system began to install domestic applications on smartphones, user complaints appeared on social networks that the Yandex. Browser, Yandex.Disk and Yandex. Maps applications installed with the update could not be removed.

Tigran Khudaverdyan, Managing Director of Yandex, commenting on the appearance of the company’s non-removable services on Samsung smartphones, noted that the law “does not require that applications be non-removable.” He stressed that the company has never approached manufacturers with such a requirement and is opposed to such an approach.

The Ministry of Digital Science shares the same opinion. “Requirements for the preliminary installation of Russian programs on technically complex goods (smartphones, tablets, computers) aim to provide users with the opportunity to choose which applications to use – domestic, foreign, or all at once,” said Deputy Minister of the Ministry Maxim Parshin. “And we consider it a wrong practice to install applications that cannot be removed from devices,” he added.