Regulators raid Google's Korean offices over Android antitrust probe

The Korean Fair Trade Commission raided Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Seoul offices Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations the digital services giant is limiting rival search engines' access to smartphones running its Android mobile operating system.

The raid resulted from a complaint filed in April by South Korean search portal providers NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp., which allege that Google is blocking local mobile operators and manufacturers from preloading some mobile search applications, including their own, on Android devices.

"Through a marketing partnership with major smartphone producers, Google has prohibited other market players from preinstalling their search window or related applications," NHN said in a statement issued this spring. "Google's market share in the local Internet search market only accounts for around 2 percent but due to such an unfair act, its share in the mobile market is fast rising in Korea, and it stands at around 15 percent."

Android devices sold in South Korea include Google as their default search engine--consumers may download rival search applications, but Korean search portals maintain it is inconvenient for users to make the switch. Google has denied the charges.

"We will work with the KFTC to address any questions they may have about our business," a Google spokesperson said in an email statement issued Tuesday. "Android is an open platform, and carrier and OEM partners are free to decide which applications and services to include on their Android phones. We do not require carriers or manufacturers to include Google Search or Google applications on Android-powered devices."

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported Google's Android business has also emerged as a major focus of U.S. antitrust regulators' investigation into the company. Sources say Federal Trade Commission attorneys are seeking to determine whether Google is preventing its manufacturing partners from supporting competitors' digital services across Android-powered devices. FTC lawyers are also investigating how Android's increasing influence is boosting Google's dominance in web search services.

The FTC probe follows in the wake of a lawsuit filed in September 2010 by location services firm Skyhook Wireless, which alleges Google "wielded its control over the Android operating system, as well as other Google mobile applications such as Google Maps, to force device manufacturers to use its technology rather than that of Skyhook, to terminate contractual obligations with Skyhook and to otherwise force device manufacturers to sacrifice superior end user experience with Skyhook by threatening directly or indirectly to deny timely and equal access to evolving versions of the Android operating system and other Google mobile applications."

Google has called the Skyhook suit a "baseless complaint." In May, a Massachusetts state judge denied Google's request to either dismiss the Skyhook case or grant a summary judgment.

For more:
- read this Bloomberg article

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