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Russia finds Google guilty of 'abusing' its market position

Russia finds Google guilty of 'abusing' its market position

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Google has been found guilty of abusing its dominant market position in Russia, according to The Wall Street Journal. Russia's competition regulator appears to have taken issue with the way that Google bundles its own apps with Android, encouraging people to use its own services while pushing out third parties, like the Russian search company Yandex, which filed an antitrust complaint back in February. Full details on the ruling will be released within about two weeks.

Google hasn't seen the ruling yet

Once the full ruling has been published, Russia may issue fines or require Google to change its practices. There's no word yet on how Google will respond, in part because it doesn't yet know the complete details of the ruling. "We haven’t yet received the ruling," Google’s tells the Journal. "When we do, we will study it and determine our next steps."

Google has faced a number of antitrust probes in recent years, including in the European Union where it's been charged with abusing its market position in search to promote its other services — a pretty similar finding to what's going on in Russia. Similarly, India is currently investigating whether Google is using its search results in an anti-competitive way to promote its own services. It's clearly a widespread concern, although the impact of these findings is yet to play out. In the past, Google has worked with governments on compromises that have it altering its practices in a way that better promotes other companies. Concerns are present in the US, too, although they don't appear to be seen as quite as much of an issue.