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Google's Seoul offices reportedly raided by Korea Fair Trade Commission

Google's Seoul offices reportedly raided by Korea Fair Trade Commission

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Google's headquarters in Seoul and reportedly been raided by the Korea Fair Trade Commission in what appears to be part of an ongoing antitrust investigation regarding the use of Android and third-party search engines.

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Google's struggles with antitrust issues continue, with the latest development happening in South Korea. All Things D reports that the company's offices in Seoul were raided earlier this week by the Korea Fair Trade Commission. It appears to be a response to the KFTC's ongoing investigation on whether Google is using its market dominance with Android to discourage manufacturers from including third-party search engines on Android devices. The investigation stems from an April complaint by local companies NHN and Daum Communications, each of which operate search engines of their own, and led to a similar raid back in September.

At that time, Google said in a statement that it intended to comply with any investigation, and that "We do not require carriers or manufacturers to include Google Search or Google applications on Android-powered devices." According to All Things D's sources, however, the KFTC seems to think the search giant has been less than cooperative, inferring that the company deleted documents and encouraged employees to work from home while the raid was occurring. Then again, South Korea has been known to levy harsh restrictions in connection with smartphones in the past. For its part, Google declined to offer All Things D a detailed comment on the matter, simply restating that it would continue to work with any government inquiries.