Türkiye's competition watchdog probes Google regarding payment systems

ISTANBUL

Türkiye's Competition Authority announced on Friday that it has launched an investigation against Google due to some practices regarding payment services in the Play Store.

"An investigation has been opened about GOOGLE in order to determine whether GOOGLE violated the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition (the Act no 4054) according to article 41 of the same Act," the authority said in a statement.

The investigation's subject will be the allegation that Google violated the competition rules by urging the application developers who want to distribute applications in Google’s Play Store to use its own payment system, Google Play Billing (GPB), and preventing application developers from informing their users about alternative payment channels.

A preliminary investigation was conducted as part of the "Mobile Ecosystems Industry Review", raising suspicions that Google was imposing restrictions on payment services for app developers.

The preliminary investigation revealed that Google requires the use of its own payment system, GPB for in-app purchases and does not allow app developers to inform users about alternative payment methods.

After the preliminary investigation, a further probe has been decided to be opened about Google.

The authority's investigation decisions do not imply that the undertakings under investigation violated the relevant law and are or will be sanctioned.