The Cold War may kind of be over, but that doesn’t mean that tensions between the U.S and Russia aren’t still frosty. This time around, the battlefront is technology and the opponents are Google and a slightly more Russian version of itself.
GOOGLE VIOLATES RUSSIAN TRUST LAWS
In a big blow to Google, a Russian court has said the company has violated the country’s antitrust rules by making its own services be bundled on Android devices. Last September the Federal Anti-monopoly Service (I’ve always hated that game myself), said that Google was abusing its power in the mobile market. The complaints from Yandex, a Russian rival, started a six-month investigation, the results of which we are now seeing.
RUSSIAN COMPETITORS BANNED FROM ANDROID DEVICES
The FAS said that Google broke the Russian laws by requiring the country’s manufacturers to bundle apps on Android devices. This means that manufacturers aren’t allowed to include apps that compete with Google’s. Seeing as there are many worthy competitors like Yandex who want their apps on Android, this caused quite a stir in the Russian tech community. The California-based company made an appeal to the ruling, but of course, Moscow’s Arbitration Court threw that appeal right out. Russia continued to say that if business practices regarding Android are not changed, the American’s will face a hefty fine.
RUSSIAN’S SUPPORT FREEDOM MORE THAN THE AMERICANS DO
America has always said they were against monopolies, but as many of us know it’s practically how our country is run. Don’t tell anyone I said that. Russia, on the other hand, recognizes that Android is an open and free platform and it should be allowed to stimulate competition. In theory, that is exactly how it should work. Russia has a healthy set of mobile devices and different brands. Is it true that Russia supports freedom more than the eagle loving, fast-food eating, football watching “capitalists” in the U.S do? Europe seems to think so. They too launched an investigation on Android’s creator to analyze their sketchy practices in the continent. To them, Android should welcome a diversity of apps and not just those of one source that dominates the market.
