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Google Found Guilty of "Abusing Dominant Market Position" In Russia

Posted by samzenpus on from the rigged-game dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Russia's anti-monopoly regulator has ruled that Google has violated Russian antitrust laws by requiring that manufacturers pre-install its services on their devices. Stock in Russian search firm Yandex has soared since the ruling. Cnet reports: "The agency, Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service, has 10 days to issue a full ruling. In the ruling, Russia can outline adjustments to Google's agreements with mobile device manufacturers, according to the translated statement. But while Google was found guilty of market abuses, a Russian antitrust regulator told The Wall Street Journal the Mountain View, California-based company wasn't 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.'"

4 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Three guesses... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...who the owner of "Yandex" is closely affiliated with, and the first two don't count.

    1. Re: Three guesses... by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes they are more popular and they have special connections in the Kremlin which is where this decision comes from. What they want is for the government to force Goolge to let them install some of Google's applications that they don't have equivalents for while allowing them to replace what they can. I would suggest Google tell them to go fuck themselves and in the process Android disappears from Russia and Yandex is destroyed.

      See that's the kicker in this whole thing, Yandex is entirely dependent on Google to provide the OS, update it and provide the store. They want to replace certain parts with their apps. But Google does not allow their software to be loaded unless ALL of it is loaded and frankly there isn't a thing wrong with that. Android is free to use and Yandex can take it and do whatever they want with it. But that would mean hiring developers and engineers and doing the real heavy lifting that Google does and it would mean forgoing the Google servers entirely, including Google play.

      Yandex wants the best of both worlds. One where they can utilize Googles software but replace all the profitable bits with their own. Basically a world where Google subsidizes them. Good luck with that. I doubt Russia is even a top 10 market for Google and they'd rather walk away from the market than empower a competitor. Then all the Russians will have left is Apple and Blackberry and Yandex will be proper fucked. I suspect this will work out as well as it did for the Spanish news publishers when Google just pulled out of the market rather than support their competitors.

      All these companies just keep trying to slay the golden goose.

  2. Google Found Guilty of Being an American Company by dlleigh · · Score: 4, Funny

    There, I fixed the headline to be more accurate.

  3. Re:Mockery of a trial... by x0ra · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, my argument is just that the EU will use the argument even if it comes from Russia. It is not looking for a fair trial, but for justification to issue the fine. This is the same argument than Internet censorship, where some French politician had the beautiful argument "China's has done it.".