South Korea’s top antitrust authority has formally accused Alphabet’s Google of abusing its dominant position in the Android app marketplace, alleging the tech giant took steps to block fair competition and calling for corrective measures along with a financial penalty.
The Market Surveillance Bureau of the Korea Fair Trade Commission released its examiner’s report at a media briefing, stating that Google’s alleged anticompetitive conduct impacted approximately 14.16 trillion won — equivalent to roughly $9.1 billion — in revenue.
According to the report, between July 2019 and March 2026, Google operated a program known internally as “Project Hug” — officially called the Games/Google Velocity Program. Under this initiative, Google offered financial support to both domestic and international game developers in exchange for using Google services such as Cloud, Ads, and YouTube. The catch: developers had to agree to launch their games on Google’s app store under terms no less favorable than those offered to competing app marketplaces.
The financial incentives were also structured to grow progressively as developers earned more revenue through Google Play, creating increasingly stronger motivation for developers to prioritize Google’s platform over others.
Regulators say the program sharply reduced developers’ motivation to distribute games through competing platforms, including South Korea’s OneStore. The report concluded that the arrangement effectively forced developers into exclusive dealings with Google and blocked rival app stores from competing fairly.
Should the full commission ultimately determine that Google violated market dominance rules, the company could face a fine of up to 6% of the $9.1 billion in affected revenue.
Google now has eight weeks from the time it receives the examiner’s report to submit a written response and examine the evidence. The bureau indicated it plans to convene the full commission and issue a final ruling once Google’s due process rights have been fully respected.
