South Korea to probe Google's Android agreements with Samsung over Tizen

South Korean regulator suspects Google of stifling mobile operating system competition

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into Google in a bid to find evidence that it obstructed the development and adoption of Tizen, the Linux-based open source operating system largely only supported by Samsung.

This latest probe focuses on a Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) that Google and Samsung signed in 2011. Under this agreement, Samsung is required use Google as the default search engine on all its Android smartphones and to pre-install Google apps, including Gmail, YouTube and Google Play.

The two companies also signed an 'anti-fragmentation agreement', which bars Samsung from developing its own alternative operating system based on Android, despite the likes of Amazon and Xiaomi having built their own platforms using the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

This has raised eyebrows in Samsung's home country, and the FTC has said that the agreements may have forced Samsung to take a cautious approach to the development of devices based on the Tizen platform.

The belief is that the agreements that Samsung signed with Google prevented Samsung from offering Tizen platforms with an Android Runtime environment, making it easy to port apps from Android to Tizen.

"We are currently checking if Google thwarted competition in the operating system market," an FTC official told the Korea Times.

The FTC is also re-opening an investigation from 2013, which saw it probe whether MADA was harmful to domestic search providers such as Naver and Daum.

While Google was cleared back then because official determined its competitors market shares were not being significantly affected, changing market dynamics have apparently convinced regulators to take a fresh look at the situation.

A Google Korea spokesman said: "Android is an open source platform. Our partner agreements are entirely voluntary — anyone can use Android without Google.

"The Android OS can be downloaded for free. It can be modified and used to build a phone. Many companies have used Android's source code as the starting point for their own operating systems."