Moscow crt says Google restricts competition on mobile app market

MOSCOW, Mar 16 (PRIME) -- The Moscow Arbitration Court has found the conclusions of the antimonopoly service that Google abused its dominant position on the local market of preinstalled application stores by obliging producers to install other services along with Google Play proven, according to a court decision released Wednesday.

When buying Google Play, producers of mobile devices were forced by the U.S. giant to install Google as a default search engine with its place on the screen strictly determined, along with other preferences.

Such behavior “expressly testified limitation of competition”, the court said.

The court dismissed an appeal of Google against the antimonopoly service on Monday. The case was heard behind closed doors.

The service found Google guilty and the company was ordered to fix all infringements by the end of the year in September 2015. The service opened the case on request from Internet giant Yandex, which was later involved in the hearings as a third party.

The antitrust watchdog’s head Igor Artemyev said in late 2015 that Google could face a fine of 8% of its turnover on the market in case of no mitigating circumstances.

On Tuesday, the service opened an administrative case against Google and summoned the company’s representative to its office on March 31.

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