Google Sues Belarusian Authorities

The trial is taking place behind closed doors.

Google asked the court to verify the legality of the actions of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade. The trial is taking place in the Supreme Court behind closed doors, reports nashaniva.com.

Earlier, the MART claimed that Google was violating antitrust regulations. They were talking about reinstalling applications on Android smartphones in Belarus. It was Yandex that complained about Google in the spring of 2019.

The essence of the claims is that Google offers manufacturers of Android smartphones and tablets the Google Play program for pre-installation on their devices only if the following conditions are met:

- pre-installation, along with the Google Play app store, of a suite of Google Mobile Services apps, including Google Search, the Google Chrome web browser, email from Google (Gmail), Google Maps, and Youtube;

- arranging a set of Google Mobile Services applications on Google-defined locations on smartphone and tablet screens;

- setting up Google Search (Google Search) and Google Assistant as "default" apps on smartphones and tablets in exchange for a reward from Google LLC;

- complying with the prohibition (including in exchange for a reward from Google) to pre-install and/or place on certain locations on the screen of smartphones or tablets apps developed by other market participants.

This, according to the Ministry, limits the opportunities for other market participants. The MART believes that this practice could lead to a reduction in the number of mobile app developers.