Japan\u2019s Fair Trade Commission ordered Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google to stop alleged abuse of its market power over local smartphone manufacturers, just ahead of high-stakes trade negotiations with the US this week.<\/p>\n
The Tuesday order reiterates the FTC\u2019s earlier finding that the US tech giant took advantage of its position as the provider of the Google Play app ecosystem \u2014 the only viable alternative to the iPhone\u2019s App store. Google is improperly forcing local phone makers to prioritize its apps and services on their devices, the regulator said.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes just ahead of Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa\u2019s planned visit to the US this week to press for a reprieve from President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on Japanese products. The watchdog\u2019s move also follows a complaint by the Office of the US Trade Representative that Japan\u2019s Digital Platform Act \u2014 geared to boost transparency from large technology providers \u2014 disproportionately affects American companies and undermines their competitiveness in Japan by increasing compliance costs. <\/p>\n
While the US runs a goods deficit with Japan, it has a surplus in services, which includes licensing fees for Android\u2019s app ecosystem as well as advertising revenue. Last year, the US sold more than $45 billion in seasonally adjusted services to Japan. <\/p>\n
Google allegedly capitalized on the struggles of Japanese smartphone makers to retain market share in a country where Apple Inc. is by far the leading smartphone brand. Google demanded Japanese phone makers \u2014 which include Sony Group Corp. and Sharp Corp. \u2014 bundle the Chrome browser and promote it on each handset\u2019s home screen, according to the FTC. The manufacturers complied, because the Google Play app ecosystem is indispensable to deliver phones that can stand toe to toe with Apple\u2019s handsets. <\/p>\n
Mountain View, California-based Google also offered to share ad revenue with device makers if they agree not to preload search engines from its rivals, the FTC said. Google places a high priority on ensuring it\u2019s the first search service users see when they get a new phone, paying Apple billions each year to secure that spot on iPhones.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s cease-and-desist order marks the country\u2019s first such command to any leading US tech firm and follows examples set by regulators around the world. The EU has rebuked both Google and Apple for using what it alleges are illegal tactics to dominate mobile software markets, while the US Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business after a federal judge ruled the company illegally monopolized the search market. <\/p>\n
Google in December said that it was disappointed in the Japanese watchdog\u2019s conclusions, and that it\u2019s proposed solutions to the regulator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japan\u2019s Fair Trade Commission ordered Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google to stop alleged abuse of its market power over local smartphone manufacturers, just ahead of high-stakes trade negotiations with the US this week. The Tuesday order reiterates the FTC\u2019s earlier finding that the US tech giant took advantage of its position as the provider of the Google Play app ecosystem \u2014 the only viable alternative to the iPhone\u2019s App store. Google is improperly forcing local phone makers to prioritize its apps and services on their devices, the regulator said. The announcement comes just ahead of Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa\u2019s planned visit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}