Japanese antitrust authorities will investigate Google

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has decided to investigate Google over possible violations of the country’s antitrust laws by the company. Thus, Japan has joined the list of leading economies in the world that suspect the company of unacceptable activities to limit competition.

Today, October 23, the Japan Fair Trade Commission announced opening a business against the American technology giant Google LLC, suspecting it of violating national antitrust laws. Among the violations, the regulator names the fact that Google allegedly seeks preferences from smartphone manufacturers for its search engine and browser so that they install it by default, and even indicates in which part of the smartphone screen these applications should initially be located.

Japanese regulators also suspect that Google is entering into agreements with smartphone makers, promising them royalties from its advertising revenue if they do not install the company’s competitors’ apps by default.

Finally, a check will be carried out to determine whether Google sought preferences from smartphone manufacturers in the installation of its other services.

“It is suspected that through such measures Google excludes the business activities of competitors and limits the activities of its business partners in the search services market,” the commission said in a statement. As its representatives emphasize, the issue is not that Google’s service is widely used by users in Japan, but that competition is fair. Google holds 70% of the search market in Japan. Its Android platform is installed on 80% of smartphones in the world.

During the first stage of the review, which will last until November 22, the Fair Trading Commission is collecting feedback and opinions from the public about possible violations by Google. Previously, similar investigations were carried out by regulators in other countries. So, in 2018 in the EU Google was fined for a record €4.3 billion for abuse of a dominant position. In the USA, based on the results of an audit in September hearings have begun according to the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice against Google: the company is accused of concluding exclusive agreements with smartphone manufacturers to obtain from them the pre-installation of its search engine and browser on devices. In 2020, the South Korean regulator launched an antitrust investigation against Google, accusing the company, among other things, of preventing local smartphone makers from using operating systems from other developers.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission has previously conducted audits of other major technology companies, including Amazon and Apple.

As a result of the audit, Amazon had to abandon a number of business practices that violate Japanese antitrust laws. And the regulator agreed to close the investigation into Apple in September 2021, after the company made changes to the payment terms of one of the applications.

Google has already commented on the decision of Japanese regulators, noting: Android is an open source platform, which promotes diversity. “Its openness and flexibility ensure that users always have the choice to customize their devices to suit their needs, including how they surf the web, search, or download apps,” Google said in response to the request. CNBC.

Alena Miklashevskaya