Fair Trade Commission Initiates Sanctions Against Google for 'Game Company Abuse' Allegations

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] The Fair Trade Commission has begun sanctions against Google for allegations of obstructing competing application (app) markets.

According to the IT industry on the 25th, the Fair Trade Commission sent a review report last week to Google regarding allegations of obstructing competing app markets such as One Store.

Once Google submits its opinion on the review report, the Fair Trade Commission is expected to hold a plenary meeting as early as the first half of this year to finalize the level of sanctions.

The Fair Trade Commission has been investigating since 2016 allegations that Google forced domestic game companies such as Nexon, NCSoft, and Netmarble to release their apps only on its own app market, the 'Play Store.'

While businesses competing with Google only had to bear a low commission fee when releasing apps, the Fair Trade Commission judged that by excluding competing app markets, Google caused domestic companies to bear higher commission fees.

The Fair Trade Commission is also investigating the illegality of Google mandating its payment method, including in-app payments, for all content distributed on Google Play, and charging a 30% commission on payment amounts.

There are also expectations that the Fair Trade Commission will impose a fine of 50 billion won on Google regarding these allegations.

However, Google stated that it "cannot confirm" whether it has received the review report or the scale of the fine.