The Korean antitrust agency fines Google $177 million for abusing market dominance

SEOUL, Sept 14 (Reuters) – South Korea’s antitrust regulator on Tuesday imposed a fine of 207 billion won ($176.64 million) on Google-owned Alphabet Inc, saying the U.S. tech giant abused its dominant market position to restrictions on competition in the mobile operating system market.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has launched an investigation into Google for allegedly blocking local smartphone makers from using other operating systems.

The fine is the latest antitrust violation Google has suffered in South Korea. Earlier this month, parliament passed a law banning major app store operators such as Google from forcing software developers to use their payment systems and effectively stopping developers from collecting commissions on in-app purchases.

The KFTC said the fine could be the ninth largest it has ever imposed.

Google could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. ($1 = 1,171.8500 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Christopher Cushing)