Trade regulators fined Google $32 million. The company was supposed to limit competition by preventing developers from publishing mobile games in an app ecosystem alternative to the Google Play Store.
The Korea Fair Competition Commission (KFTC) fined Google $32 million (42.1 billion won) for anti-competitive activities. The company had to require companies that create games for mobile devices to publish their products only on the Google store.
Google fined for blocking competitors
The KFTC investigation indicates that Google should have required exclusive release of games on the Play Store between June 2016 and April 2018. In return, the Mountain View giant was supposed to promote the games on its platform and help them gain interest outside of Korea.
At the same time, in 2016, a new competitor appeared on the market - the One Store app store. The project was founded by the three largest mobile operators in Korea - SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus - together with the Internet concern Naver.
According to the data collected during the investigation, in 2016, the market share of the Play Store platform apps was 80-85 percent, and by 2018, it increased to 90-95 percent. At the same time, One Store initially used 15-20 percent. market. However, in two years it fell to the level of 5-10 percent.
Google Play Store vs One Store
Korean researchers claim that both the Google Play Store and One Store generate more than 90 percent. profits in the country from the sale of mobile games. Forced exclusivity on the Google platform was supposed to affect the entire market - from small developers to large game development companies such as NCSoft, Netmarble or Nexon.
However, Google claims that the company’s actions were aimed at promoting games from Korea internationally. “We have cooperated in good faith with KFTC in this investigation for the past five years. We believe the law has not been violated and we respectfully disagree with the KFTC decision,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
This is not the first Korean investigation into Google. In 2021, the same regulator imposed a $177 million fine on the company for abusing its dominant position in the Android device market.
Source: Wprost
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