The countries investigating Google’s Android agreement documentation over anti-competition concerns just seems to keep growing. South Korea is preparing an investigation over anti-competition concerns as they relate to Android and the smartphone market. Google has already faced stiff investigation in the European Union where they could face stiff fines from the regulatory body there.
Google “cannot punish or threaten” companies for not complying with its conditions, according to the document seen by Reuters. “The Commission intends to set the fine at a level which will be sufficient to ensure deterrence,” it said. The Commission’s investigation followed a complaint by FairSearch, a lobby group supported by companies that want to ensure they are not disadvantaged by search engine market dominance, in March 2013.
It seems more countries are exploring the Android agreement situation to understand fully if Google is leveraging their position to push out competition and steer users to their services and products. Google does have a distinct advantage in the market but are they really leveraging it at the expense of competitors?
Head of South Korea’s antitrust regulator said the agency will closely examine whether Google’s agreements with handset manufacturers on the U.S. firm’s Android mobile operating system limits market competition.
Jeong Jae-chan, chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, said the agency will re-examine anti-competition issues over Google’s policies on the Android platform but did not elaborate on specifics.
The agency said in August it was looking into whether the U.S. firm, whose corporate parent is Alphabet Inc., has violated South Korean anti-competition laws but did not elaborate on what potential charges might be brought against Google.
Russia has already fined Google $6.8 million USD in their anti-competitive investigation which isn’t much considering the enormity of Google’s cash reserves. What do you think of these countries investigating Google over these issues? Let us know your thoughts and comments below or on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
[button link=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-android-idUSKCN12B05W” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Reuters[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
