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ARTICLE · 04 MARCH 2019

Competition Rules Hit Google Hard In Turkey

Balcıoğlu Selçuk Eymirlioğlu Ardıyok Keki Attorney Partnership
Balcıoğlu Selçuk Eymirlioğlu Ardıyok Keki Attorney Partnership
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Balcıoğlu Selçuk Eymirlioğlu Ardıyok Keki Attorney Partnership

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Google was hit by another strike following the European Commission's €4.3 billion record fine.

TurkeyMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Sahin Ardiyok
Sahin Ardiyok
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Google was hit by another strike following the European Commission's €4.3 billion record fine. This time, the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA)—which previously resisted further investigating its mobile operating system practices in 2015—turned around and decided that Google had abused its dominant position in the licensable smart mobile operating systems market through its practices in the relevant market and other related markets such as the search and app store services markets. Accordingly, the TCA fined Google approx. €15 million and demanded that Google change its current relationship with the manufacturers.

Why did the TCA change its mind?

Yandex, as the provider of search and information services as well as mobile applications in Turkey and across Eurasia, brought a complaint in 2015 in relation to some of Google's agreements and compliance programs, which restrict mobile phone manufacturers from using alternative mobile operating systems and enforce

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