Russian regulator accuses Google og abusing market dominance

Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service, (FAS) yesterday said internet search giant Google had been abusing market position in the country and would face penalties, in a case launched by local competitor Yandex .

According to the anti-monopoly body, the search company had violated the law by pre-installing certain applications on mobile devices and could face penalties totaling up to 15 per cent of its 2014 revenue in this part of the Russian market.

FAS declined to specify the revenue in question, saying it was a trade secret, adding, the exact value of the fine would be decided on after 28 September.

It added Google needed to pay and change its ways, or risk more fines in case the violations continued.

Google Russia said it would analyse the decision and would not comment until then.

Shares in Yandex, which rivaled Google as Russia's biggest internet search engine, were up as much as 9 per cent before settling at  around 7 per cent higher.

Yandex, which had filed a complaint against Google with the anti-monopoly body in February, welcomed the decision.

"We believe the FAS decision will serve to restore competition on the market," the company said.

FAS examined whether Google acted unfairly in bundling its own services -- like Google Maps, search and YouTube -- with its Android mobile operating system software, that powered over 80 per cent of the world's smartphones.

The agency had 10 days to issue a full ruling. In the ruling, the agency could outline adjustments to Google's agreements with mobile-device manufacturers, according to the translated statement.

However, even though Google was found guilty of market abuses, a Russian antitrust regulator told The Wall Street Journal that Google had not been found guilty of "unfair competition practices."

"We haven't yet received the ruling," a Google spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "When we do, we will study it and determine our next steps."

According to commentators the FAS' action comes as the latest reverse for the company in a five-year tussle between Google and European regulators.

The search giant had been the target of an anti-trust investigation by the EU over the way it displayed search results.

According to the probe Google unfairly prioritised its own services especially Google Shopping -- over its competitors.

In India, Flipkart, Facebook, Nokia's maps division, MakeMy-Trip.com and several other companies had corroborated complaints in August that Google had abused its dominant market position, in response to queries raised by the Competition Commission of India. (See: Google charged with rigging search results in India by CCI).