Google said on Tuesday it will appeal a recent antitrust ruling in Russia that would otherwise require the tech giant to make significant changes to its Android platform later this week.
In accordance with a decision handed down in September, Google has until Nov. 18 to unbundle its own apps from Android smartphones and tablets before it risks being fined anywhere from 1 percent to 15 percent of its 2014 revenue in Russia.
“We intend to contest this decision and explain in court why we consider it unfounded,” Google said this week via its official Russian blog, Reuters reported.
When Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) ruled against Google in September, the agency said the American company had violated a nationwide “Protection of Competition” clause as a result of having pre-configured its Android smartphones to prioritize Google-owned apps such as Maps, YouTube, Gmail and its eponymous search engine.
“To restore competition on the market, Google should amend agreements with mobile-device producers within a month and exclude the anti-competitive clauses,” FAS said at the time.
The antitrust probe against Google was opened earlier this year at the behest of Yandex, a Russian-operated competitor who previously promised to fight any efforts to appeal.
“Yandex is confident in every point of its position. We are ready for the appeal and welcome the most open trial,” Yandex said in response to Google’s announcement this week, Reuters reported.
Last week, Yandex asked the European Commission to open a probe in the EU to consider Google’s practices there with respect to its Android mobile operating system.
“We think that the Russian finding of abuse of dominance is instructive, and is a conclusion that can readily be adopted in other jurisdictions, including the EU,” Yandex said.
“We hope the European Commission … offers their help in restoring fair competition and ensuring equal opportunity to pre-install mobile applications on Android-based devices not only for Google, but also for other developers.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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