Chinanews.com, September 14th, comprehensive Korean media reported that on the 14th local time, South Korea’s antitrust regulators allegedly abused Google’s dominant market position in the Android operating system to hinder the development of competitors and imposed 207.4 billion won on Google. (Approximately RMB 1.14 billion) fines.
According to reports, the Korea Fair Trade Commission believes that Google and mobile device manufacturers have signed a so-called "fragmentation prohibition contract" that prohibits manufacturers from using deformed operating systems that can become competitors or developing their own operating systems.
If the contract is not signed, the manufacturer will not be able to use Google's necessary applications, and the operating system will not be given prior access rights, so the manufacturer can only succumb.
The Fair Trading Commission believes that Google’s behavior is an abuse of market dominance.
Chairman Zhao Chengxu said that none of the deformed operating systems that could become a strong competitor entered the market, so Google's share in the mobile field reached 97%. In fact, Google has become a monopoly.
According to reports, this is the decision made by the Korea Fair Trade Commission more than five years after its investigation into Google Korea in July 2016.
The committee made an exception for three plenary meetings before finalizing the tailored content.
The Fair Trade Commission also ordered Google to prohibit Google from forcing mobile phone manufacturers to sign a "prohibition of fragmentation contract" and ordered it to modify existing contracts.