South Korea’s antitrust regulator has fined Google Won207bn ($177m) for abusing its market dominance in the mobile operating system market, escalating the regulatory pressure on tech groups in the country.
The penalty marked the first time that South Korea has fined Google for anti-competitive business practices, the Korea Fair Trade Commission said on Tuesday. But it was just the latest regulatory setback for the search group in South Korea, which has become the first country in the world to attack the lucrative commissions charged by Google and Apple’s app stores.
The KFTC’s fine, one of the biggest South Korea has imposed on a global tech company, and its corrective order was aimed at allowing local smartphone makers to customise Google’s Android mobile operating system.