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| 공정거래위원회. (사진=연합뉴스) |
[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] A fine was imposed on Google, which limited market competition by preventing mobile game companies from entering the app market.
The Fair Trade Commission said on November 11 that it will impose a correction order and a fine of 42.1 billion won on Google for hindering competition in the app market.
The Fair Trade Commission decided that Google has blocked the release of One Store games for multiple game companies, including Netmarble, Nexon and NCsoft, on the condition that it will exclusively release front-page exposure (featureing) of the Play Store (Google Play) and support for overseas expansion.
The app market is a digital platform that mediates transactions between app developers and consumers, and the Android sector includes Google Play and One Store. Both Google Play and One Store generate more than 90% of domestic sales in games.
Google expects the launch of the One Store in 2016 to hurt domestic business sales.
By April 2018, when the FTC launched the investigation, the company proposed feature and marketing support, forcing large game companies to give up the simultaneous release of One Store. In addition, the company divided game companies' ratings according to the proportion of sales and the possibility of simultaneous release of one-store, and established a response strategy to secure exclusive releases by grade.
The FTC decided to impose fines on Google's actions, along with corrective orders against Google LC, Google Korea and Google Asia Pacific.
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
