The South Korean antitrust authority FTC has fined Google 42.1 billion won (about 29.2 million euros) for unfair business practices. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has ruled that Google is said to have used its market dominance to disadvantage the competing platform One Store in South Korea.
According to this, Google is said to have made agreements with game manufacturers between June 2016 and April 2018, who should ensure that they offer their titles exclusively in the Play Store. This procedure was first publicly known as part of the court dispute between Google and Epic Games.
Money for exclusive releases
According to a court document published in 2021, Google is said to have actively approached several developer studios to obtain advantages for the Play Store. More than 20 of the most successful studios are said to have received money to continue publishing their applications in the Play Store, accuses Epic Google. According to the documents, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed to the top developer studios as long as they continue to offer their games exclusively on the Play Store. According to the court document, the studios courted in this way included Tencent in addition to Activision-Blizzard.
Google did not dispute this approach per se: It competes with other app stores for developer business, a spokesman said at the time Technikmagazin The Verge. Therefore, Google has long offered programs that support outstanding studios with resources and investments. This is a “sign of healthy competition” between operating systems and app stores and is beneficial for developer studios.
Even after the decision of the South Korean antitrust authorities, Google is defending its strategy: the company has not violated any competition laws. A decision will be made on how to proceed once the written decision of the FTC is available.
(dahe)
