South Korea’s antitrust watchdog, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), has leveled serious allegations against Google, accusing the tech giant of leveraging its Android market dominance to stifle competition. At the heart of the dispute is a multibillion-dollar incentive program that regulators claim was designed to prevent game developers from listing their titles on rival platforms. The KFTC’s Market Supervision Bureau has recommended a corrective order and a fine that could reach as high as $546 million, representing approximately 6% of the revenue generated through the alleged anti-competitive conduct.
Central to the investigation is an internal initiative known as ‘Project Hug,’ or the Google Velocity Program. Between 2019 and 2026, Google allegedly offered substantial financial support—including credits for Google Cloud, advertising, and YouTube services—to prominent domestic and international game developers. In exchange, these developers were reportedly required to ensure that the terms of their cooperation with the Google Play Store were no less favorable than those offered to any competing app market, effectively creating a de facto exclusivity arrangement.
Regulators argue that this incentive structure was ingeniously designed to scale with a developer’s success. As revenue from Google Play increased, so did the financial rewards, creating a powerful feedback loop that discouraged developers from distributing their games through competitors, such as South Korea’s homegrown platform, OneStore. This strategy, the KFTC asserts, systematically weakened the commercial viability of alternative ecosystems and cemented Google’s stranglehold on the mobile gaming distribution market.
This is not Google’s first major brush with South Korean law. In 2021, the KFTC imposed a $177 million fine on the company for blocking smartphone manufacturers from using modified versions of the Android operating system. The current case highlights South Korea’s continued role as a global vanguard in Big Tech regulation, being one of the first nations to pass legislation forcing app store operators to allow third-party payment systems. Google now has an eight-week window to provide a formal response before a final ruling is issued.