Google Found Guilty in Russia Under Anti-Monopoly Law

Federal Anti-Monopoly Services found Google guilty of manipulating the market and promoting its applications in amidst Russian android users. FAS Head for Information Technology Department, Vladimir Kudryavtsev, confirmed that Google ws found responsible for the violation of Part 1 of Article 10 of the law 'On protection of competition

According to FAS anti-monopoly body, Google has violated the law by pre-installing certain applications including Google Search on mobile devices. As a penalty, Google could face penalties that could amount to as much as 15 percent of its annual revenues of 2014, reported MoneyControl.

Yandex is Google's competitor in the Russian market. FAs alleged that Google was abusing its market position in the Russian market based on the case launched by Yandex. However, it declined to state the sum involved in the case stating it to be a trade secret. An exact value of the fine will be decided on September 28. Google will have to thereafter pay the penalties and rectify its mistakes to avoid any further such implications or further violation of anti-competition law in Russia, said First Post.

Yandex has welcomed the decision from FAS. It had alleged that Google Mobile Services required pre-installation of Google Search Engine as a default search engine and also gave preferential placement on mobile screen devices. Fly, Explay and Prestige, three of Russia prominent smartphone vendors were prohibited from offering pre-installed Yandex applications on their devices.

Google has not commented on the situation so far. However, it did say that it will comment only after it analyses the decision and will comment on it thereafter. According to FAS, it will issue its full ruling within 10 days that will include list of recommendations to prevent Google from dominating their market position in Russia, reported Russia Today (RT)