14 DAY TRIAL // The head of South Korea’s antitrust regulator has announced that the agency will start examining whether Google’s agreements with smartphone manufacturers are limiting market competition. The agency intends to investigate anti-competition issues.
Jeong Jae-chan, chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, has said the agency will examine any anti-competition issues that Google’s policies could cause on the Android platform, according to Reuters.
Earlier this year, the agency said that it was investigating whether the US tech giant violated any South Korean anti-competition laws. However, no information was provided on potential charges that could be brought against Google.
Google is under investigation in Europe as well
In April this year, we reported that the EU competition enforcer accused Google of demanding mobile phone makers to pre-install Google Search and Google Chrome browser on smartphones so that they would get access to Google apps. The Mountain View-based company is even suspected of providing manufacturers and mobile operators with financial incentives to exclusively pre-install Google Search on their devices.
The EU Commission brought three charges to the US company, one involving the company favoring its own shopping service over those provided by rivals. The second charge involved the company’s action to restrict competitors to its AdSense for Search advertising service by signing agreements with websites.
Google is risking fines that could reach to billions of dollars in Europe, and since the company is being investigated in South Korea as well, Google may be forced to pay top-dollar to regulators this year.
Earlier this year Google received a $6.75 million fine over Android antitrust violations in Russia. It seems that the company had requested smartphone and tablet manufacturers to install Search, Maps and other services as part of the Play store package. It remains to be seen how the tech company will be handling the investigation in South Korea, but it’s safe to say that this won’t be an easy year for its lawyers.