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The
Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) disclosed the investigation
in a brief statement, without commenting on the nature of the
probe nor any potential antitrust violations. A person familiar
with the matter told Reuters last month the KFTC inspected
Google's Seoul headquarters in July.
The antitrust body's statement came after a local media report
said the KFTC had decided to clear Google of anticompetition
charges involving the pre-loading of the company's apps on
smartphones running on the Android operating system.
Google, whose corporate parent is Alphabet Inc <GOOGL.O>,
declined to comment.
While it wasn't clear whether the probe would lead to any formal
charges, the investigation opens another regulatory front for
Google. The firm was fined $6.8 million in Russia on Thursday
and faces multiple European Union antitrust charges.
The KFTC has investigated Google before. In 2013, the regulator
cleared Google of wrongdoing following a probe into whether the
company hurt competition by forcing smartphone makers using
Android to pre-load its search engine on the handsets.
(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
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