Early in September, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia said that Google's policies on pre-installed Android applications had broken Russian competition rules. Recently, the Russian antimonopoly regulator announced that it is only giving Google until Nov. 18 to loosen its Android policies.
This signifies that Google should eliminate restrictions on bundled third-party apps by the deadline if it wants to stay away from stiff fines. By doing so, device makers will be permitted to load directly competitive apps and search widgets.
"We are satisfied with the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) to recognize Google’s actions, as detailed in our complaint, as a violation of the antitrust law," said Yandex, Google's biggest competition in Russia, in a statement. "Our goal is to return fair play to the market – when apps are preinstalled on mobile devices based on how good or how popular they are rather than due to restrictions imposed by the owner of the operating system."
It is also important to note that Google may also deal with a fine of one to 15 percent of its Russian earnings from the preinstalled apps, according to the country's regulator.
Based on the estimate of Morgan Stanley, an American multinational financial services corporation, one percent of Google's Russian revenue is equivalent to approximately $560 million.
The market share of Google's Russian rival Yandex fell to 50 percent in August compared to its 54 percent share at the beginning of 2014. Meanwhile, Google, according to LiveInternet.ru, rose to almost 42 percent from 34 percent.
In the meantime, Yandex boasts its own App Store for Android devices. Yandex's browser for Android already logged between 10 million to 50 million installs.
In February, it was reported that Google faced a Russian antitrust probe after the complaint of Yandex that Google is forcing Android device manufacturers to preinstall Google apps. Google denied the accusations.
"Device makers are free to install the apps they choose and consumers always have complete control over the apps on their devices," said Google.
It was also reported that a lawsuit was filed against Google by two people, claiming that the tech company is forcing Android device makers to make its apps the default ones.
Photo: Robert Scoble | Flickr
