Google gets $177m fine in South Korea over Android dominance

14 September 2021
The Android maker’s anti-fragmentation agreements (AFAs) hindered fair market competition according to The Korea Fair Trade Commission.

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  • 14 Sep 2021

Anonymous, 14 Sep 2021Amazing hopefully $17.7 Billion fine nexthopefully apple :)

    • t
    • techguy
    • ADh
    • 14 Sep 2021

    Msclara, 14 Sep 2021Nice 👍🏻Apple's next :)

      JustSomeRandomGuy, 14 Sep 2021this article is utter garbage. it lacks the main purpose wh... more"It is meant to reduce the rampant fragmentation of Android."

      Best of luck seeing that in 2021, especially from the Chinese brands. If anything, we keep seeing more phones coming every six to eight months.

        "This in turn prohibited said OEMs to install modified versions of Android that aren’t explicitly approved by Google on their devices."

        Then what is the whole point or purpose of AOSP in the first place? Google may as well scrap the whole thing and make Android completely locked down as what Apple did with iOS.

          • k
          • kpopfan
          • teu
          • 14 Sep 2021

          South Korea is absolutely a brilliant country

            Nice 👍🏻

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • YQG
              • 14 Sep 2021

              Peter UK, 14 Sep 2021It's sad that small countries like Korea are brave eno... moreAmericans love billionaires like Bezos and Bill gates.

              Even the poor ones love Jeff Bezos and always protest on syrrets when you increase 1% tax on Amazon

                i really hope the next fines from other countries toward fb, amazon, google, apple and others are in the billions, don't be shy.

                  It's sad that small countries like Korea are brave enough to fight big companies like Apple, Amazon and Google but others can't.... Tax rich and fine those who break the rules no matter how powerful they are!

                    • J
                    • JustSomeRandomGuy
                    • EwD
                    • 14 Sep 2021

                    this article is utter garbage. it lacks the main purpose why the AFA was implemented by Google in the first place. It is meant to reduce the rampant fragmentation of Android. remember, this dates back from 2011, the early years of Android where fragmentation was everywhere. the latest version of Android at that time was 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but look how many phones got the update and for how long until they received said update, if any at all? compared to iOS, Android version distribution was a hot mess, hence Google decided to do something about it.

                    it has been much better since then with Project Treble and similar efforts to it. OEMs are now updating their phones much longer and much more timely, presumably, thanks to policies and changes set by Google. but notice anything since then? Android became much more locked down and less modified. it's annoying, for sure, but it is the price to pay for timely updates

                    that was the purpose of the AFA which this article didn't even bother to mention a fraction of it.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • YQG
                      • 14 Sep 2021

                      Amazing hopefully $17.7 Billion fine next

                        • D
                        • AnonD-558092
                        • IBQ
                        • 14 Sep 2021

                        The user benefits are not a legal argument to hinder concurrence, not to mention it is a highly subjective characteristic that cannot be measured reliably. They'll lose their appeal, I hope.

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