South Korea’s antitrust regulator has fined Google 42.1 billion won (currently about RMB 219 million) for preventing game makers from releasing mobile games on rival platforms, according to Reuters.
The South Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said on Tuesday that Google had prevented game makers from releasing their games exclusively on Google Play by requiring them to do so in exchange for providing app exposure from June 2016 to April 2018.
The KFTC said the move against Google is part of an effort to ensure a fair marketplace, and that game makers affected by Google’s restrictions include Netmarble, Nexon and NCSOFT, as well as other smaller companies.
This is not the first time Google has been fined by South Korea. 2021 saw Google fined more than 200 billion won (currently about RMB 1.042 billion) by the KFTC for blocking custom versions of the Android operating system
