Japan Issues Cease-and-Desist Order against Google

Jiji Press

16:34 JST, April 16, 2025

TOKYO (Jiji Press) – Japan’s Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order against Google LLC, claiming that the company forced smartphone makers to install its search app in violation of the antimonopoly law.

Google became the first “GAFA” U.S. information technology giant to receive such an order from the Japanese antitrust watchdog.

According to the FTC, since July 2020 at the latest, Google has concluded contracts to require manufacturers of Android devices to place Google Search in an advantageous position on smartphone screens as a default when approving the use of the app store Google Play.

In addition, as a condition for paying part of the revenue from search-linked advertising services to device manufacturers and others, Google has concluded contracts to prohibit search apps of competitors from being installed on smartphones.

These practices had led to the exclusion of Google rivals from the search services market.

According to the communications ministry, Google accounted for 81.1% of the domestic market for smartphone search services as of January last year.

The FTC judged that Google’s practices, believed to have been aimed at eliminating competitors and maintaining a high market share, amounted to “trading on restrictive terms” prohibited by the antimonopoly law.

In October 2023, the FTC announced that it has started an investigation into Google on suspicion of violating the law.

In April this year, the agency took administrative action against Google for allegedly restricting digital advertisement transactions of LY Corp., the operator of internet portal Yahoo! Japan and messaging app Line.