Law, Suspension of Fair Trade Commission's Corrective Order Effect on Google for 'OS Gapjil'
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The court has temporarily suspended the enforcement of the corrective order in a lawsuit filed by Google, which contested the fine imposed by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for allegedly forcing smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its operating system (OS), Android.
According to the legal community on the 3rd, the Administrative Division 3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Ham Sanghoon, Kwon Sunyeol, and Pyo Hyundeok) partially accepted Google's request for a suspension of execution against the KFTC. The suspension period is until August. However, the order to pay the fine of 224.93 billion KRW remains in effect.
Earlier, Google LLC, Google Asia Pacific, and Google Korea were fined 207.4 billion KRW and received a corrective order from the KFTC in September last year for allegedly forcing smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, to pre-install Android.
According to the KFTC, after securing a dominant market share of 72% in the mobile market with the Android OS, Google prohibited manufacturers from producing devices with 'Fork OS' (an OS created by modifying the Android source code released by Google) from 2011 until the time the fine was imposed.
It was investigated that Google required manufacturers to sign a 'Anti-Fragmentation Agreement' (AFA) as a mandatory condition when concluding essential Play Store license agreements and Android early access license agreements that provide the latest version of the Android source code. This applied not only to smartphones but also to smartwatches and smart TVs.
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The KFTC judged this as an 'abuse of market dominance and unfair practice' and issued a corrective order prohibiting the act of forcing the conclusion of the AFA by linking the Play Store license and Android OS early access rights.
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