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A wise man once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” That old saying probably hasn’t rung more true for Google who, thanks to the worldwide dominance of the Android operating system, could be facing hefty anti-regulatory fines in Russia.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google has now been found guilty of “abusing its dominant market position” by requiring OEMs bundle a handful of Google to come pre-loaded on Android devices. You should be very familiar with this practice by now. While it’s true that anyone can build their own version of Android — without a single Google app installed — when a manufacturer wants access to the Google Play Store, Google requires a handful of other in-house apps come pre-installed as well. This is what landed them in hot water with Russia’s anti-monopoly agency who began investigating Google for alleged “anticompetitive practices” nearly 7 months ago.
The Russian agency hasn’t even issued its full ruling, so we don’t know how big of a fine Google will be slapped with or if they’ll be forced to change their agreements with smartphone makers over which apps to pre-install. The crazy part is Google hasn’t even seen the ruling yet, with a Google’s Russia spokeswoman saying, “When we do, we will study it and determine our next steps.” We’ll let you know when we hear more.
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