According to Reuters, South Korean anti-monopoly authorities accused Google on July 1 of abusing its dominant position in the Android app market and hindering fair competition. They stated that they would recommend regulatory measures against Google and impose fines.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission's Market Supervision Bureau released a review report on this case during a media briefing on that day. The report stated that investigations revealed Google was suspected of abusing its dominant position in the Android app market, with an alleged amount involving 14.16 trillion Korean won (approximately 9.1 billion US dollars).
The report states that from July 2019 to March 2026, Google provided financial support to domestic and foreign game developers through the so-called “Games/Google Velocity Program” (internally referred to as “Project Hug”). This support was granted to enable these developers to utilize Google services such as Google Cloud, advertising, and YouTube. However, this support was conditional upon the developers meeting certain cooperation terms when publishing their games on Google Play Store; these terms must be no worse than those offered by competitors’ app markets.
The report states that such a design allows Google to receive increasing financial support as developers generate more revenue through Google Play, thereby creating a stronger incentive mechanism that encourages developers to prioritize Google’s market.
The report indicates that this plan significantly reduced developers’ enthusiasm for distributing games through their competitors’ app stores, including the local OneStore in South Korea. This hindered the commercial activities of competitors and forced developers to enter a de facto exclusive relationship with Google.
According to Reuters, if the KFTC decides that Google has abused its dominant market position, it may impose a fine of up to 6% of the revenue involved in the case.
The maximum fine amount is up to US $5.46 billion, calculated at 6% of US $9.1 billion.
In 2021, KFTC imposed a fine of 207.4 billion Korean won (approximately 177 million US dollars) on Google for suspected abuse of its dominant market position.
According to reports, Google had eight weeks after receiving the review report to submit a written response and review the evidence. The KFTC Market Supervision Bureau stated that it plans to hold a meeting of the full committee and make a final ruling as soon as possible, with adequate protection of Google’s due process rights ensured.
