By Barrabi
Japanese regulators have launched a probe against Google over alleged antitrust violations – adding another legal headache for the tech giant in the middle of the landmark trial targeting its online search business.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission on Monday said it is examining whether Google violated the country’s Antimonopoly Act by sharing ad revenue with some Android smartphone makers if they agreed not to install rival search engines.
The JFTC’s investigation is the latest sign of a mounting global crackdown of Google’s business practices – including the US Justice Department’s ongoing high-profile effort to break up the company’s search empire.
“There is suspicion that through these steps it is excluding competitors’ business activity and restricting its business partners’ business activity in the search services market,” a JFTC official said during a press conference announcing the probe.
“We’ve launched this probe wondering if the situation under which other search engine providers’ services have a hard time being recognized as a user’s choice, no matter how much improvement has been made, is artificially created,” the official added.
Japan’s probe will focus on whether Google’s business practices hurt competition, the official added. The watchdog has asked relevant third-parties to provide feedback on the case by Nov. 22.
Google pushed back on Japan’s probe in a statement, asserting it has supported the Android software marketplace as an “open-source platform” that has boosted competition.
“We have continued to work closely with government agencies to demonstrate how we are supporting the Android ecosystem and expanding user choice in Japan,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue to collaborate with the government and industry partners throughout this process.”
In the US, the Justice Department has argued during the trial that Google has relied on anticompetitive tactics to create an illegal monopoly over online search.
The feds claim Google pays billions of dollars annually to smartphone makers like Apple and mobile carriers like AT&T to ensure its search engine is installed by default on many devices.
Google has denied wrongdoing, arguing customers use its search engine because it is the best product on the market.
Executives from rival firms Microsoft and DuckDuckGo have testified about their firms’ futile efforts to chip away at Google’s market share.
The DOJ’s antitrust case against Google is considered the most consequential case of its kind since Microsoft faced a similar challenge more than two decades ago. Google faces separate federal probes related to its Maps business and its alleged monopoly over the digital advertising marketplace.
In Europe, regulators slapped Google with fresh antitrust claims as recently as June. Google has has been hit with three penalties in the European Union worth $8.6 billion since 2017.
