A tussle is slowly ensuing in Russia pitying Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Russia’s search giant Yandex, which has reportedly asked the country’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to probe the later over a possible violation of the country’s anti-trust laws. Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) has asked the regulator to probe Google on a possibility of knowingly bundling its mobile search engine service, as well as other end-user services on devices running on its Android platform.
Yandex in a statement affirms that the alleged monopoly practices have been the subject of investigations in a number of countries. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is under investigation by the European Commission; a probe in which Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) is also a major participant. The Russian search giant is especially taking issue with the fact that Android-powered devices are usually locked in the Google Application store without the possibility of using other similar services on offer.
Yandex is believed to have raised the alleged monopoly practices after being notified by its three long time partners namely Prestige, Fly and Explain that they were no longer able to pre-install Yandex services in the Android –powered handsets.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Yandex have been battling it out for market share in Russia, but it is the first that the latter has reported Google over monopoly practices. The probe is of massive importance to Yandex, considering over 86% of devices sold in Russia are powered by Android, which means in one way or another Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has an effect on them.
However, Yandex still controls a majority of the search market at 58%, compared to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s 33%. But with more Android devices being sold in the country the Yandex does not want to take any chances.
Yandex PR director, Ochir Mandzhikov, maintains device manufacturers should have a choice of choosing which search provider to set as the default or, which services are to be pre-installed. The PR director also maintains Google should not block device manufacturers from preinstalling apps from other companies.
Yandex is pushing for the unbundling of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Android operating system from Google search so that users can use other services.
