Google announces that Turkish partners will end cooperation with Android devices

Google has informed its partners in Turkey that they will no longer work together on new Android devices for the Turkish market for the time being. The announcement follows an imminent fine in the country for infringement of competition laws.

The termination only concerns the collaboration, reports Google. Consumers can continue to buy Android devices and continue to use services and apps. “We have informed our business partners that we will no longer be able to work with them on new Android smartphones to be released in the Turkish market,” the company said in a statement to Reuters after Haberturk reported on the matter over the weekend.

Mobile providers and Turkish smartphone makers, among others, are affected by the decision. The Turkish competition authority announced on November 7 that contracts between Google and those providers were not yet in order, despite changes, because the telecom companies were not allowed to make changes to the search engine. The competition authority had ordered the Android maker in September to end its abuse of market power within six months, otherwise a fine of 93 million lira, equivalent to 14.29 million euros, would follow. The case was brought by the Russian search service Yandex.

Google reports that it will continue to work with the competition authority to end the dispute. “After more than three years of working with the Competition Authority, in August, following a decision from the Competition Authority, we made some changes to the agreements with our Android partners. These changes include increasing the flexibility we offer our partners to install revenue-generating applications from Google on their devices. However, in November, the competition authority found that it was not enough,” Haberturk said in the statement.

Google further points out in its statement that it basically makes Android available for free, that it invests millions of dollars in development and that partners can install applications themselves, in addition to those from Google. The company further asked the Turkish trade minister and the head of the competition authority to reverse the decision.