Korean Antitrust Enforcers Raid Google

According to reports, the Korean Fair Trade Commission, South Korea’s antitrust agency, raided Google’s offices today looking for “information about Google allegedly limiting access to rival search engines on its Android mobile operating system.”

CNET reports that two Korean Internet companies “asked the country’s Fair Trade Commission to investigate Google’s business practices regarding mobile search. It’s also possible that mobile-device makers, some of which are based in South Korea, may have raised concerns related to restrictions Google places on use of its Android mobile OS.”

Korea is just one on a long list of international law enforcement agencies that are investigating Google’s anticompetitive conduct.

And this certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Google using compatibility restrictions and exclusive deals to deny revenue and traffic to sites that compete with Google. And without revenue and traffic, these sites are blocked from bringing more innovative online content and better services to consumers.

In fact, The New York Times reported that a manager in Google’s Android group admitted that “we are using compatibility as a club to make them do things we want.”