Google and its ubiquitous mobile operating system are somehow under fire as Russia finds that the search engine giant's policies on pre-installed apps are rather uncompetitive. This prompts the country's regulators to order Google to remove the restrictions that tie the company's services and apps to new Android devices.
Google after being found guilty of abusing its dominant market position in Russia, Mountain View is now being demanded by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to rectify its contracts with manufacturers after a ruling that Google had broken the law by pre-installing their own applications and services on the Android platform, and the search engine giant has until Nov. 18 to change the requirements it puts on hardware partners.
Yandex, a local search engine competitor to Google, was the one who filed the antitrust complaint against Mountain View. The local Russian search engine had seen that the competition has rather stiffen in mobile phones with users going with Android devices that feature apps and services pre-loaded by Google.
"Our goal is to return fair play to the market," according to Yandex. "Our position is strong and we intend to defend it in case of appeal at any level. This view is shared by a number of companies outside of Russia."
If Google fails to comply before Nov. 18, the company will face stiff fines that could include up to 15% of its revenue in Russia from 2014. Google, however, has not responded yet for a comment, and it is not yet clear as to whether the search engine giant will have other options other than conforming to the sought change.
India has also taken its measures to investigate if Google is also manipulating search results in an anti-competitive manner. The Federal Trade Commission has looked into the company's practices as well and reached a settlement, thus resulting to minor changes in Google's part.
