Antitrust watchdog CADE will examine tech giant’s policies in Play Store; effort mirrors Apple’s investigation.
Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) initiated an investigation on Tuesday evening (3) to determine whether Alphabet’s Google is engaging in restrictive practices within the Android operating system concerning Google Play Store.
CADE’s experts have identified signs of irregularities and will notify major companies operating in potentially affected markets to better understand and define them.
Contacted on Tuesday evening, Google, which dominates the internet search market, did not reply to a request for comment.
The case bears similarities to an ongoing investigation into Apple, the electronics giant competing with chipmaker Nvidia for the title of the world’s most valuable company.
Last week, CADE’s General Secretariat launched an administrative process against Apple to investigate alleged abuse of market dominance and issued several directives to the company, requiring, for instance, that apps inform users of alternative ways to purchase their products.
According to CADE’s General Secretariat, the investigation into Alphabet’s subsidiary was initiated “in light of evidence suggesting that Google may be adopting measures similar to those taken by Apple.”
The investigation comes at a time when the Brazilian government is drafting a proposal to grant the CADE greater authority to regulate “big techs” from a competitive standpoint in the country.
Additionally, the CADE will review the details of similar investigations in other jurisdictions to assess their relevance to the current case.
The General Secretariat has also received complaints alleging that “Google forces app developers distributing through Google Play [Store] to use its payment platform exclusively,” and that it “discourages users from installing apps not downloaded through Google Play Store,” further prohibiting “the distribution on Google Play [Store] of apps that provide other apps,” and “cancels accounts and suspends apps from developers who do not comply with such policies.”
“Given the functioning of the Android operating system, regarding app distribution and in-app purchase payment processing, there is evidence that Google may be engaging in practices similar to those under investigation in the aforementioned case, with ongoing investigations in other jurisdictions,”
noted the CADE.
As a next step, the competition authority will analyze the full content of the Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) imposed by Google on app developers in Brazil, particularly concerning rules related to the Google Play Store, app and digital goods and services distribution in the Android operating system, and in-app purchase payment processing, “to enable a better understanding and assessment of their content and the extent of their actual and potential effects.”
“This has been observed, for example, in the investigation conducted in the United States in the Epic Games v. Google case, where the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit imposed remedies related to app distribution on the Android operating system and billing services for in-app transactions,”
cited the technical team in the investigation’s opening note. The initiation order is signed by Fernanda Garcia Machado, acting general superintendent.
Source: Valor International
