Google stops Android and Google Play for its devices in Türkiye for this reason

The giant Google announced the suspension of its services for smartphones running the new Android system in Türkiye unless the country reverses its decision to fine the company for violating competition law. The decision will not affect current users or current phone models already on the market, but rather this move will lead to the suspension of the American giant’s services for Android devices that have not yet been released. The Turkish Competition Authority announced last September that it had fined Google about 93 million Turkish liras for violating competition laws through its sales of mobile software.

The agency said in March this year that it had launched a broader investigation into Google based on initial findings. Google told its Turkish business partners, phone manufacturers and telecom companies that sell smartphones that it will not grant licenses to Android phones that will be launched in the Turkish market to use its services, including Google Play Store, Gmail, YouTube and its other applications. Accordingly, it also said that it will also suspend operating system updates. According to Habertürk daily, Google has suspended Türkiye's licenses as of December 12, and the company has not commented on the issue.

Google also asked companies to pressure Trade Minister Ruhar Pekan and the head of the Competition Authority by phone and email to reverse their decision, otherwise manufacturers and sellers would be negatively affected, Habertürk said. The watchdog began its first investigation in March 2017 to determine whether Google had violated the country's competition law, before announcing the fine in September last year and conducting a wider investigation in March this year. The preliminary investigation aims to determine whether Google's contracts with producers of equipment as well as mobile communications systems, applications and service provision have found that the tech giant violated the law.

It said a preliminary investigation had found that Google had abused its dominant position in the search engine and advertising market by offering its own local search service and making other companies' efforts difficult. The Oversight Authority concluded that the information, documents and findings of the initial investigation were sufficient to launch a broader investigation into the company and its practices.