Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has issued Google with a RUB438 million ($6.8 million) fine.
Last year, Russian search engine firm Yandex lodged a complaint with the FAS which led to the antitrust watchdog ruling that Google was in violation of the Russia’s antitrust laws. Any manufacturers wishing to offer Android devices were essentially forced to preinstall Google apps and set Google as the default search engine, otherwise users would not be able to access Google Play’s content catalogue.
Yandex had aimed to launch a portfolio of Android apps in order to compete with Google, but despite its previous dominance in the Russian search engine space, the firm saw its market share drop off significantly as mobile traffic increased.
Russia is not the only market where Google’s Android practices are coming under scrutiny; both the European Commission and the Korea Fair Trade Commission have launched similar investigations.
