The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) conducted an on-site investigation at Google Korea in connection with its probe into Google’s alleged abuse of market dominance.
According to industry sources on June 27, the KFTC sent investigators to Google Korea, the Korean subsidiary of Google, last week to carry out an on-site inspection. This investigation is reportedly aimed at securing evidence regarding Google’s alleged provision of rebates to game companies and other abuses of its dominant position in the Android application (app) market.
On June 23, the KFTC questioned NCSoft as a reference witness. NCSoft is the developer of the popular game "Lineage M," which has long held the top spot in sales on the Google Play Store.
Previously, in November last year, civic groups including the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) reported to the KFTC that Google had provided unfair rebates to NCSoft, Netmarble, Com2uS, and Pearl Abyss to ensure that they used only Google’s app market, "Google Play."
They stated, "We have obtained materials related to Google’s exclusive conditional transactions that were revealed in the U.S. antitrust lawsuit," and reported to the KFTC that "Google has strengthened its market dominance and abused its trading position by deducting intermediary fees of up to 30% of sales from domestic game companies."
CCEJ and others claim that Google collects a 30% commission on payments made through Google Play, and that a portion of this revenue was returned to game companies to prevent them from moving to other app markets.
Based on Google’s financial data and other sources, CCEJ and others estimate that the scale of unfair transactions, including the distribution of in-app purchase rebate revenue, amounts to 1.2667 trillion won, and that the unjustly obtained operating profit is 685 billion won.
In January, the KFTC notified CCEJ that it had initiated deliberation procedures regarding the report of Google’s abuse of its dominant market position.
Previously, in April 2023, the KFTC imposed a fine of 42.1 billion won and issued a corrective order against Google for providing benefits such as top app placement and overseas expansion support to four game companies on the condition that they launch games only on Google Play and not on competing app stores such as "One Store" between 2016 and 2018. The current investigation covers the period after these sanctions in 2023.
A KFTC official stated, "We cannot confirm specific details regarding individual investigations."
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