South Korea fines Google $32m for blocking games

South Korea’s competition watchdog on Tuesday, April 11 imposed a fine of 42.1 billion won (32 million dollars) on Google.

The company was fined for using its dominant market position to block the sale of computer games on rival platform One Store.

The South Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said that Google had reached questionable agreements with game makers between June 2016 and April 2018 to ensure that they offered their products exclusively on Google Play.

In return, Google had offered certain marketing advantages to the game makers, the FTC said in a statement.

One Store’s value as a platform had declined as a result, it said. “Google was able to extend its dominance in the App market,” FTC said.

Google denied the allegations, saying it had not infringed any competition laws. The tech giant said it would decide on further action after receiving the FTC ruling in writing.

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One Store was set up in 2016 by three South Korean mobile phone providers and South Korea’s Naver search engine.

The Star