Google to contest Russia's antitrust ruling on Android

MOSCOW

The new Google logo is seen at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California November 13, 2015.

Reuters/Stephen Lam

Google will contest in court a ruling by Russia's antitrust agency that it broke competition law by abusing its dominant position with its Android mobile platform, the U.S. technology company said on Tuesday.Russia's competition watchdog ruled in September that Google had broken the law by requiring pre-installation of certain applications on mobile devices running on Android.

"We intend to contest this decision and explain in court why we consider it unfounded," Google said in its official Russian blog.
Google has until Dec. 18 to amend its contracts with smartphone manufacturers in order to comply with the ruling in the case that was launched by local rival Yandex.
"Yandex is confident in every point of its position. We are ready for the appeal and welcome the most open trial," Yandex said in a statement.
Yandex said on Friday that it had also asked the European Commission to investigate Google practices in relation to Android in the European Union.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)