South Korea fined Google $32 million. The company did not allow the games to be released in the Korean One Store
Google used its position in the Korean mobile store market to harm the local One Store app store. This is the conclusion reached by the antimonopoly regulator of South Korea. He issued the company a fine of 42.1 billion won or $32 million.
The regulator claims that immediately after the launch of the One Store in 2016, Google began to conclude exclusive deals with Korean game developers and publishers. Including with Netmarble, Nexon and NCSOFT. The company allegedly promised to help them promote games abroad if they agreed to release titles only on Google Play. Google concluded such deals until April 2018.
Google disagreed with the regulator’s conclusions and stated that it did not prevent companies from publishing games in other stores.
According to DB Financial Investment, at the end of 2021, Google owned 74% of the mobile application market in South Korea. One Store — 14%.
