Google's OS Forced Sales Abuse Against Samsung... Fair Trade Commission Imposes 207.4 Billion KRW Fine

Fair Trade Commission Issues Corrective Order and Imposes 207.4 Billion KRW Fine on Google for Forcing Android OS Installation
Corrective Measures Extend Beyond Smartphones and Tablets to All Smart Devices... Competition Expected to Intensify"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The Fair Trade Commission has imposed sanctions, including a fine of approximately 200 billion KRW, on Google for forcing manufacturers of smart devices such as Samsung and LG to use its Android operating system (OS).This FTC action is significant in that it strikes down Google's 'gapjil' (abuse of power) against Android phone manufacturers and includes all smart devices such as smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches as subjects of corrective measures.

The FTC announced on the 14th that it decided to impose a corrective order and a fine of 207.4 billion KRW on Google for forcing smart device manufacturers to preinstall the Android OS.

Google has so far forced smart device manufacturers not to produce devices equipped with forked versions of the Android OS. This was done through the Anti-Fragmentation Agreement (AFA) enforced when signing license agreements for its application market, the Play Store, and pre-access agreements for the OS. According to the AFA, manufacturers cannot install forked OS on any released devices, nor develop forked OS themselves. Distribution of SDKs for forked app development is also prohibited.

In fact, when Samsung Electronics, a major Android phone manufacturer, released the 'Galaxy Gear 1' smartwatch equipped with its own forked OS in August 2013, Google notified Samsung that it violated the AFA. Samsung, which had to rely on Google's Android as its smartphone OS to compete with Apple's iPhone, abandoned the forked OS for smartwatches and switched to the Tizen OS, which had no app ecosystem at all.

As such, the launch of new smart devices like smartwatches and smart TVs equipped with forked OS was frustrated, hindering the entry of competing OSs into the market in the field of OS development for other smart devices and stifling innovation, according to the FTC's assessment.

Earlier, the EU also found in 2018 that Google abused its market dominance in smartphone OS and imposed a fine of 4.34 billion euros (approximately 6 trillion KRW) for unfair practices.

Chairman Cho Sung-wook of the Fair Trade Commission emphasized, "This FTC action is meaningful in that it expands Google's corrective measures, which the EU limited to smartphones and tablets, to all smart devices such as smartwatches," adding, "We expect new innovations to continue by revitalizing market competition pressure."

Song Sang-min, Director of the Market Surveillance Bureau at the FTC, said, "It is significant in that it has laid the foundation for the emergence of innovative devices and services in other smart device fields, such as smartwatches, automobiles, and robots, whose scope is gradually expanding," and added, "The FTC will continue to strictly enforce laws without discrimination between domestic and foreign companies against anti-competitive acts by platform operators who have preempted the market to maintain and strengthen their monopolistic positions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.