South Korea fines Google for abuse of dominance

The South Korean Fair Trade Commission has announced that it fined Google 207 billion won (US$ 176.64 million) for abusing its market dominance in the Android operating system (OS) market, concluding its investigation started in 2016.

Google has been found to restrict competition by preventing the customisation of Android OS by local smartphone companies via anti-fragmentation agreements. The Fair Trade Commission has now banned Google, Google Asia Pacific, and Google Korea from imposing anti-fragmentation agreements onto local developers.