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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Google, which was fined 200 billion won by the Fair Trade Commission for forcing smartphone makers to install its operating system, disagreed but lost.
Today (24th), the Seoul High Court Administration Department 6-3 (senior judge Hong Sung-wook, Hwang Ui-dong and Wi Kwang-ha) ruled against the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Google against the Fair Trade Commission for cancellation, including a correction order and the imposition of a fine.
The court judged that "Google imposed an obligation to ban fragmentation on smart device manufacturers not to install its competitors' Fork OS (OS made by modifying Android source code released by Google) and hindered manufacturers' innovation activities on research and development of new smart devices."
The court went on to explain that "Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are having difficulty in commercializing devices or developing specialized products for each manufacturer due to Google's demands, which hinder innovation and quality improvement in the market."
In September 2021, the FTC imposed a correction order and a fine of 224.93 billion won on three companies, Google LLC, Google Asia Pacific and Google Korea, for forcing smartphone makers such as Samsung Electronics to install Android, their OS.
Google secured dominance in the mobile market with Android OS and prevented manufacturers from making devices equipped with 'fork OS' from 2011 to the time of the penalty.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
