According to Yonhap News report, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission Watchdog has cleared Google over unfairly using Android to aid its search business in Korea following a two-year-long investigation. The report says that the FTC reviewed the case and concluded that internet giant doesn’t constitute on hurting any market competition.
The story all started back in April 2011, when Korea’s two major internet portal operators NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp. filed complaints with the FTC, claiming that Google hurting fair market competition by urging mobile phone makers to preload its search engine where internet giant’s preloading requirement allowed its search engine to be opened first on Android phones.
“Before and after Google’s push to force the preload of the Android operating system, its domestic market share remains almost unchanged at around 10 percent, while Naver (the portal of NHN) still maintains more than 70 percent,” an unnamed FTC official said. “This does not satisfy the competition-restricting condition, which is one of the major issues of this case.”
Photo Credit: Flickr/Clive Darra
