Google Faces South Korea Antitrust Probe Over App Store Practices

South Korea’s antitrust enforcers are running three parallel tracks on Google Play: a 2026 deterrence-oriented agenda, a 2023 corrective order whose compliance is still under inspection, and a 2021 law that broke new ground on app store billing. The Korea Fair Trade Commission told a presidentially chaired session on December 19, 2025 that digital markets, including app store conduct, would be a central policy focus through 2026, with substantially higher fines and a more coercive investigative toolkit on the way. The Google South Korea app store probe now spans regulators, statutes, and a corrective-measures inspection, all running on the same clock.

What Seoul Is Now Doing on App Stores

The Korea Fair Trade Commission inspected Google’s offices on August 16, 2023 to verify whether the company was complying with a corrective order requiring Google to allow rival app marketplaces to compete on Android. That inspection sits at the heart of the current enforcement posture.

The agency has lined up sharper tools in the interval since. A December 19, 2025 policy briefing laid out a 2026 agenda of intensified enforcement and “stronger deterrence mechanisms” aimed at digital markets, including app stores. The agency says it plans to make administrative fines the primary economic sanction and to substantially raise them, on the theory that violations must stop being treated as a routine cost of doing business. Behind that, the KFTC is reviewing reforms that would let it impose fines on parties that refuse to cooperate with investigations, and is preparing a significant expansion of its organizational structure and personnel, all framed by a deterrence-oriented competition policy agenda that targets the digital sector first.

The 2023 Fines Google Is Still Fighting

South Korea’s Korea Communications Commission on October 6, 2023 proposed fining Google 47.5 billion won and Apple 20.5 billion won for violating the country’s in-app payment law, a combined 68 billion won under the Telecommunications Business Act. The commission found both companies had abused their dominant position by forcing Korean publishers to use specific billing systems and by unfairly postponing app reviews. It also flagged Apple’s policy of imposing fees on Korean developers as a discriminatory act.

Google, in its October 6, 2023 statement in the Korea Communications Commission matter, called the action a “pre-notice” and pledged to “carefully review and submit our response.” Apple openly refused the conclusions, saying: ‘We disagree with the conclusions made by the KCC in their Examiner’s Report, and believe the changes we have implemented to the App Store comply with the Telecommunications Business Act.’ The KCC’s October 2023 notice wrapped up the probe it had opened in August 2022 over Google Play, Apple’s App Store, and the local One Store. The framing matters: “pre-notice” and “Examiner’s Report” mean the fines are still subject to a Korean deliberation process that can run for a year or more before any final order.

Layered on top of that is the KFTC’s separate One Store case, finalized in April 2023, in which the agency concluded that Google had blocked the release of mobile games on the rival domestic platform. Google is challenging that ruling in Korean courts, leaving the company with one active KCC matter and one active KFTC matter as the 2026 agenda lands.

• 47.5 billion won: October 2023 KCC proposed fine on Google for in-app billing abuse
• 20.5 billion won: October 2023 KCC proposed fine on Apple in the same case
• 68 billion won: combined KCC fines proposed in the single October 2023 action
• August 2022: the Korea Communications Commission opened its billing-compliance probe
• August 16, 2023: the KFTC inspected Google’s offices to verify compliance with the corrective order

The 2021 Law That Started It

The South Korean National Assembly passed an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act in 2021 that bans app store operators from forcing software developers to use the operator’s own payment system. South Korea was the first country in the world to introduce curbs of this kind on Apple and Google’s billing practices. The law split enforcement cleanly: the Korea Communications Commission owns in-app billing compliance, while the Korea Fair Trade Commission owns dominance complaints. The split is the reason Google now faces parallel tracks in Korea.

Google’s response, made through a statement Yonhap News Agency reported on October 6, 2023, was to lean on the company’s existing alternative billing option for Korean developers. The company’s posture in that statement was that it had been working with the KCC and had structured its existing alternative billing around the new law. The KCC’s pre-notice did not accept that explanation.

The 2026 Tool Kit at KFTC

The KFTC’s December 2025 policy briefing identified two overarching policy challenges for 2026: structural imbalances in bargaining power among market participants, and competitive distortions arising from digital transformation. The agency says it plans to make administrative fines the primary economic sanction, on the theory that the cost of violations must outweigh the economic benefits of unlawful conduct. Digital markets sit at the top of the priority list, alongside AI and cloud services. Korea’s app store economy, with One Store as the domestic challenger to Google Play, falls squarely inside that frame.

The agency is also reviewing institutional reforms that would let it impose administrative fines on parties that refuse to cooperate with investigations, a power it doesn’t currently have. That single change reshapes any future probe.

Behind those tools, the KFTC plans a significant expansion of its organizational structure and personnel. The agency has signaled it will also conduct in-depth analyses of monopolistic or highly concentrated market structures before reaching determinations on individual violations.

Where that lands in practice is a regulator with a heavier stick, more staff, and a stated appetite to use both. The full chronology of how the case reached this point runs through the timeline below.

1. 2021: National Assembly passes Telecommunications Business Act amendment curbing app store payment monopolies
2. August 2022: Korea Communications Commission opens billing-compliance probe on Google Play, App Store, and One Store
3. April 2023: Korea Fair Trade Commission concludes the One Store game-blocking case
4. August 16, 2023: KFTC inspects Google’s offices to verify compliance with the corrective order
5. October 6, 2023: KCC concludes its billing probe and issues pre-notice fines
6. December 19, 2025: KFTC policy briefing sets the 2026 deterrence-oriented agenda
7. 2026: KFTC enforcement regime targets digital markets including the app store layer

Where the Squeeze Lands on Developers

South Korea’s mobile gaming industry still leans heavily on Google Play, with One Store as the domestic alternative that the KFTC’s April 2023 ruling was meant to protect. When Google has adjusted commission structures in Korea, local gaming stocks have moved with the news. The friction isn’t gone: legal disputes over what counts as compliant keep running.

Since the start of the fact finding investigation in August 2022, we have worked closely with KCC to explain how we are complying with the new law whilst ensuring that through our alternative billing, we continue to provide a safe and high quality experience for all.

Google issued that statement to Yonhap News Agency on October 6, 2023 in response to the Korea Communications Commission’s pre-notice, which proposed fines against the company. The line captures Google’s posture in the South Korea app store probe: cooperation in language, contest on substance. For Korean developers, the practical upside is that they can already route transactions outside Google Play’s billing system and pay a discounted service fee on those transactions, a shift from the era when Google Play Billing was effectively the only legal option. The downside is that a regulator this busy produces more scrutiny, more filings, and more compliance work, all of which lands hardest on smaller studios that don’t have a regulator-grade legal team.

How Korea’s Track Fits the Global Pattern

The political signal from Seoul landed ahead of any other major market on app store billing. The 2021 Telecommunications Business Act was the first major-jurisdiction law to ban app store operators from forcing developers to use the operator’s own payment system. The Korea Communications Commission’s October 2023 notice was the first concrete test of whether that architecture could actually move money, opinions, and behavior on the ground. The pre-notice it produced was a combined fine against two of the largest app store operators in the world, by a regulator that is now signalling it intends to be more, not less, interventionist.

Comparable US action is Epic v. Google.

Per the company’s own June 2026 Play policy update, Google entered a new settlement with Epic on March 4, 2026 and the parties have asked the US District Court to enter a revised Modified Injunction. The same update says Google Play will begin providing app listings to third-party US Android app stores unless developers opt out by July 22, 2026. Korean regulators are watching that case as a comparator for what an effective remedy looks like, and as a reference point for how broadly an app store probe can run when the platform is willing to settle.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did South Korea actually accuse Google of in its app store probe?

The Korea Fair Trade Commission concluded in April 2023 that Google had abused its dominant position in the Android app market by blocking the release of mobile games on the rival domestic One Store platform. A separate Korea Communications Commission probe completed in October 2023 found that Google had used its dominant position to force Korean publishers to use specific billing systems and to unfairly postpone app reviews. Google called the KCC’s October 2023 action a pre-notice and pledged to contest it.

How much has Google been fined in South Korea so far?

The publicly disclosed figures on the Korea app store front are the KCC’s October 2023 pre-notice proposing 47.5 billion won on Google and 20.5 billion won on Apple, for a combined 68 billion won. Those fines are still subject to a Korean deliberation process, and the KCC has said it would finalize after hearing the companies’ responses.

What is the 2021 Telecommunications Business Act amendment?

Passed by the National Assembly in 2021, the amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act banned app store operators from forcing software developers to use the operator’s own payment system. South Korea was the first country in the world to introduce such curbs on Apple and Google’s billing practices. Enforcement was assigned to the Korea Communications Commission, with separate abuse-of-dominance cases handled by the Korea Fair Trade Commission.

Why are the KFTC and the Korea Communications Commission both involved?

The two agencies run on different statutes. The Korea Communications Commission, as the country’s telecommunications regulator, owns compliance with the Telecommunications Business Act, which covers in-app billing. The Korea Fair Trade Commission, as the country’s antitrust authority, investigates abuse of dominance, which covers app store power. The split is why Google now faces one KCC track on billing and one KFTC track on dominance.

What does the South Korea app store probe mean for small developers?

Under the 2021 amendment and Google’s response, developers selling in Korea can route transactions outside Google Play’s billing system and pay a discounted service fee on those transactions. The structural risk is that a regulator this active generates more filings, more audits, and more compliance overhead, which lands hardest on smaller studios that don’t have a regulator-grade legal team.