Google to contest Russia antitrust ruling on Android

[November 17, 2015]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Google will contest in court the Russian antitrust agency's ruling that it broke competition law by abusing its dominant position with its Android mobile platform, the U.S. technology giant 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," the company 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 said it will make a statement shortly. It 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)

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