South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has begun investigating claims that Google Play has been pressuring developers into releasing exclusively on its marketplace, according to a report.

The Korea Herald cites industry sources alleging that the FTC is looking into whether the company abused its market leading position.

Accusations include whether Google Play asked or pressured developers into releasing games on certain storefronts, or “not to launch their games via other app marketplaces”.

Local media reports also claimed that the investigation is looking into whether companies that bowed to such pressure were impacted negatively.

The dominant platform

Google Play and the App Store are two of the most widely used mobile app marketplaces in the world. The former has a dominant position on Android, being Google’s own storefront on its own OS.

It was reported in the Korea Mobile Internet Industry Report 2017 that Google Play accounted for 60.7 per cent of all mobile app content sales last year.

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