According to sources keen on maintaining their anonymity, officials from the South Korean Fair Trade Commission have raided the offices of Google Inc in Seoul.
The action seems to follow a joint complaint to South Korean antitrust regulators by the Internet portals NHP Corp and Daum Communications Corp that Google has been resorting to unfair practices designed to stifle competitors in mobile search operations.
While the complainants are said to have alleged that Google has been made the default search engine in Android-based smartphones and that it was almost impossible to opt for another search engine, Google has denied the charge and claimed that it has not imposed any such condition on the manufacturers of smartphones or any other devices using Google's Android operating system.
Google, it may be mentioned, is under investigation in Europe as well as U.S. for possible violations of antitrust laws.
