Google fined for breaking Russian antitrust rules with Android

Russian antitrust officials have fined Google $6.8 million, a relatively small penalty that nevertheless represents the latest in a growing list of global regulatory problems for the search giant.

Russian authorities ruled last year that Google had abused its market position with Android, its mobile operating system, by favoring some of its digital services over those of rivals, including the Russian company Yandex.

While the Russian fine is akin to a rounding error compared with Google’s $75 billion in annual revenue, the ruling against Android is the newest setback for the company amid mounting global competition investigations into the search giant’s activities.

U.S. officials previously investigated whether the company had unfairly favored some of its services over those of rivals within its search engine, but they eventually decided not to bring charges.

In India, one of Google’s fast-growing markets, the national antitrust authority sent the company a report last year outlining its concerns about search dominance and anticompetitive behavior.

The Indian officials suggested that the company is abusing its dominant market position by ranking its services ahead of those of competitors in Google search, according to people familiar with the report, which has not been made public.