SKorean search engines file Google complaints

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s top search engine companies have asked the country’s antitrust regulator to investigate Google Inc. over whether it restricts competition in the mobile search market.

NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp. filed complaints Friday with South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission.

The companies claim that Google restricts competition through imposing restrictions on local mobile service providers and smartphone manufacturers that have adopted its Android operating system from pre-loading rival mobile services.

Google in a statement called Android an “open platform” and added that carriers and companies it partners with “are free to decide which applications and services to include on their Android phones.”