On September 14, South Korea's antitrust agency announced that it would impose a fine of US$177 million on Google .
It is understood that Google requires , Samsung Electronics and other smart device manufacturers to use only approved Android operating system versions.
said that although Android is open source, Google prohibits manufacturers from using a forked version of the operating system.
Google particularly restricted the development of operating systems in South Korea.
Previously, Samsung had launched the Tize system and used the Tizen system for some low-end mobile phones. However, it was announced that the self-developed Tizen system had failed soon. Samsung released the One UI Watch watch operating system, officially abandoned its own Tizen smart watch system, and was forced to join the Google Wear OS camp.
The US Federal Trade Commission also stated that Google forced Samsung, Amazon and Acer to sign anti-fragmentation agreements, prohibiting them from using or developing Android operating system forks.
The committee has ordered Google to abandon "illegal" behavior and fined it.
Compared with Google's parent company Alphabet 's net income of more than 40 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, this fine is small. But the Federal Trade Commission said its move is significant.
The chairman of the committee, Joh Sung-wook, said that this action is significant because it lays the foundation for the restoration of competitive pressure in the mobile operating system and application market in the future. In particular, as smart devices expand their fields to smart watches, cars, and robots, they have also laid the foundation for innovative devices and services.Significant.
Two weeks ago, the National Assembly of South Korea passed a bill prohibiting application market participants from implementing specific transaction methods for content providers. The legislation targets Google and Apple, which charge up to 30% of fees for certain transactions.
The US Federal Trade Commission stated that Google is like a regulator, requiring Samsung and other manufacturers to obtain its approval before launching devices. Google will check whether these devices use a forked Android operating system. , If used, Google will prevent product release.
FTC said that due to this approach, Google's market share in the global mobile operating system market (excluding China) jumped from 38% in 2010 to 97.7% in 2019.
According to the Nikkei Asia report, the fines imposed on Google are the third largest fine imposed by South Korea on global companies. Previously, it fined and Qualcomm by US$800 million and US$170,000 in 2016 and 2009, respectively, for the same reason. Abuse of its dominant position in the market.
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