South Korea’s competition regulator has accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the Android app market, and signalled it will recommend corrective measures and a financial penalty.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission said on Wednesday that its Market Surveillance Bureau found conduct affecting 14.16 trillion won, or roughly $9.1bn, in relevant revenue, according to Reuters.
At the centre of the case is a scheme Google called “Project Hug” internally, formally the Games or Google Velocity Program.
From July 2019 to March 2026, the KFTC alleges, Google offered game developers financial support tied to services such as Cloud, Ads, and YouTube, on the condition that they launched titles on Play on terms at least as favourable as any rival store.
The contracts were structured to reward loyalty. Support increased as developers generated more revenue through Play, which the watchdog says sharpened the incentive to prioritise Google’s marketplace over competitors.
The programme’s timing spans nearly seven years, ending only in March. That long run is part of why the affected-revenue figure is so large, and why the potential penalty scales with it.
Korean outlets report the alleged coercion swept up the country’s biggest studios. The Korea JoongAng Daily named NCSoft and Netmarble among developers pressed to stay on Play and accept higher commissions.
The financial exposure is the headline number. Under Korean fair-trade law, abusing market dominance can draw a penalty of up to 6% of affected revenue.
Applied to $9.1bn, that ceiling works out at roughly 849.6 billion won, or about $547m, though any final figure would be set only if the full commission upholds the finding.
That distinction matters. The bureau’s report is an accusation, not a verdict, and Google retains the chance to rebut it before the commission rules.
Google has eight weeks from receiving the examiner’s report to file a written response and review the evidence, per the KFTC. The bureau said it would convene the full commission and issue a final ruling once due-process rights had been observed.
The case revives a fight Korea has waged with Google before. In 2023, the KFTC fined the company about $32m for blocking developers from launching games on a rival platform.
Korea has also legislated where enforcement moved slowly, passing a landmark law that forced Google and Apple to allow alternative in-app payments. Regulators later warned that Google’s billing changes might still breach it.
The country’s appetite for reform has not cooled, with lawmakers pushing to end the commission dominance the two app stores enjoy.
The pressure is not confined to Seoul. Google is contesting antitrust actions on several continents, and its Play Store economics are a recurring target, including the US states’ Play Store monopoly case.
What sets the Korean case apart is its focus on payments to developers rather than fees charged to them. The theory is that inducements, not just commissions, can lock a market in place.
Most app-store scrutiny to date has centred on the cut platforms take at checkout. Korea is testing whether the money flowing the other way, from platform to developer, can be anticompetitive when it comes with strings attached.
If the commission agrees, it would broaden how regulators read platform loyalty deals, with implications well beyond gaming.
Google has not conceded the point and will now make its case to the KFTC. A final decision, and any fine, remains months away.
The gaming sector is not a side matter in Korea, where domestic studios rank among the world’s largest and Play is the default storefront on most handsets. A ruling against Google would land at the centre of the country’s most valuable app category.
For Korea’s developers, the outcome will shape whether steering revenue toward Play stays a business choice, or becomes a liability.
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