The Korea Fair Trade Commission’s (KFTC) Market Surveillance Bureau has accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the android app marketplace, according to a report by Reuters.
The South Korean antitrust regulator said the tech giant used its size to prevent competition and will now recommend financial penalties and corrective steps that Google should take in its examiner’s report.
In a press briefing for the release of the report, the regulator said Google’s dominance in the app marketplace was worth around14.16 trillion won (£7.07 billion) in revenue.
From July 2019 to March 2026, the bureau found Google’s Games/Google Velocity Program, which it internally called “Project Hug”, gave game developers financial incentives to use
Google services such as Cloud, Ads, and YouTube. These were provisional on developers launching games on Google’s app store on terms at least as favourable as rival app marketplaces, according to Reuters.
The contracts were also structured so that Google’s financial support increased progressively as developers generated more revenue through Google Play, which the report said created more incentives to sell through Google’s marketplace.
If the regulator rules that Google exploited its market dominance, it could issue a fine of up to 6 per cent of the relevant affected revenue.
Google has eight weeks from receiving the examiner’s report to submit a written response and review the evidence. According to Reuters, the bureau said it plans to convene the full commission and issue a final ruling promptly once Google’s due process rights have been fully observed.
In a statement to Reuters, Google said: “Google Play competes fairly with other app stores and delivers numerous benefits to developers and consumers in Korea.
“We have cooperated diligently with the KFTC’s investigation, and we will continue to show the Commissioners that there has been no violation of the law.”
