The lobby of Google Korea headquarters in Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has sent a formal letter to Google LLC on its decision to slap a fine of 42.1 billion won (US$31.4 million) on the U.S. tech giant for unfair business practices aimed at solidifying its dominance in the local mobile gaming app market.
In April, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) decided to take the punitive action on Google and its regional arms for clinching shady agreements with South Korean mobile game companies between June 2016 and April 2018, hindering them from launching content on One Store, a homegrown app market in South Korea.
The notification was delivered to the U.S. firm in late July.
The FTC said it has also ordered Google to revise its agreements signed with local mobile game developers and establish an internal monitoring system that oversees fair-trade issues in the domestic app market.
Google is required to report the outcome from the system to the FTC, it added.
“A monopolistic app market can give a negative impact on all areas of the mobile ecosystem, and recovering competition in the market is very crucial,” the FTC said in a statement.
“The latest measure is significant as it acts as a brake on the expansion of dominance by Google, a major global player, and builds grounds for the fair competition in the app market.”
The regulator said it will continue to thoroughly monitor the implementation of such corrective measures by Google.
(Yonhap)
