Google: stops supporting Turkish devices

Google has stopped issuing licenses for new Android mobile phones sold in Turkey, meaning that these devices will not have its services, according to a Publication of Reuters.

The ban comes just a year after the country's regulator imposed a fine on Google. The fine was $ 17,4 million for violations of competition law.

Although Google responded by modifying its agreements with its business partners, the country's regulator continued to disallow changes to its default phone search engine.

In a statement, Google said it has told its business partners that it will not approve licensing applications for new Android phones in the Turkish market. This means they won't have access to the Google Play Store or apps like Gmail and YouTube. However, Google has stated that existing models will not be affected by the decision and will continue to be available for purchase.

"Existing devices and applications will continue to operate and receive updates as usual," the company said in a statement.

Google said it is currently working with the country's regulatory authority to resolve the situation and has asked its business partners to pressure Turkey's Commerce Minister and the country's competition authority to reconsider their decision.

"We understand this is causing difficulties for consumers, manufacturers, developers and mobile providers in Turkey but we are soon expected to have a decision from the TCA," Google said.

The company said it has already changed its contract to provide "even more flexibility around how [manufacturers] pre-install Google apps to make money from their devices".

Turkey's competition authority launched its Google investigation in 2017 when Russian competitor Yandex filed a complaint against it. Following an investigation, the regulator issued a fine for Google in September 2018 and gave the company six months to resolve the problems identified.

However, following changes made by Google to its contracts in August 2019, in November the competition regulator ruled that these changes were insufficient and imposed an additional fine (0,05% of Google's revenue per day) until resolve these issues.