Following the US, Japan starts antimonopoly investigation into Google's search dominance

Japan’s competition watchdog has announced that it’s looking into Google for a potential violation of antimonopoly laws related to its web search services. This investigation is in line with actions taken by authorities in Europe and other big economies.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) is specifically examining whether Google may have broken Japan’s Antimonopoly Act by giving a portion of its earnings to Android smartphone manufacturers with the condition that they don’t install competing search engines.

It is also looking into Google’s practice of making Android phone makers install its “Google Search” and “Google Chrome” browser applications with the “Google Play” app.

“There is suspicion that through these steps it is excluding competitors’ business activity and restricting its business partners’ business activity in the search services market,” a JFTC official told a press conference.

The official said the issue was not that Google’s service was widely used, it was about fair competition.

“We’ve launched this probe wondering if the situation under which other search engine providers’ services have a hard time being recognised as a user’s choice, no matter how much improvement has been made, is artificially created.”

The decision follows similar investigations by antitrust regulators in the European Union, the United States and others.

(With input from agencies)