Russian law firm sues Netflix and Apple to ‘punish’ boycotting companies

To The Lake

A Russian law firm has launched legal actions against Netflix and Apple in an effort to ‘punish’ western companies who have abandoned Russia in wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Both Netflix and Apple have suspended the activities of their respective streaming services in Russia, while the latter has restricted the use of Apple Pay and has stopped all exports into Russia.

In response, Chernyshov, Lukoyanov & Partners has filed two class action lawsuits seeking 60 million roubles (€901,324) from Netflix and 90 million roubles (€1,351,986) from Apple. The suit against Netflix is claiming moral damages, while the suit against Apple is due to the iPhone maker reducing devices’ functionality and value. 

A senior partner at the law firm, Konstantin Lukoyanov, has called on Russians to come forward with complaints, and has said that he expects Russian courts to rule against the US tech giants. 

In an interview with local press, as reported by Reuters, the lawyer said: “We have only now realised how many consumers feel their rights have been violated. At the start of our journey, we thought there would be three, four or five big companies, but in fact there are many more.

Lukoyanov added that it is an explicit intention of the suits to “seriously punish” companies for leaving Russia.

“We are counting on companies being compelled to return to the Russian market and then having to close any claims that accumulated before they left.”