Seoul, Oct 28 — South Korea's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator said on Wednesday it will impose a combined 63.7 billion won ($45 million) worth of fines on Google and Apple for restricting app developers' payment options through their in-app policies.
The Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) approved fines of 42.9 billion won for Google and 20.81 billion won for Apple for violating the Telecommunications Business Act over their app store payment policies, reports Yonhap news agency.
The commission said it will also issue corrective orders but will not file criminal complaints against the two U.S. companies.
The KMCC said Google and Apple had abused their dominant positions by forcing app developers to use specific payment methods and imposed unfavourable conditions on third-party payment options.
The decision comes about three years after South Korea's regulator first notified Google and Apple of the alleged violations in October 2023.
Meanwhile, Google shut down 449 South Korean YouTube channels in the second quarter of this year for their politically charged content, a report showed recently.
According to "Influence Operations Bulletin Q2 2006" by Google's Threat Analysis Group, the U.S. company terminated 22 YouTube channels in Korean in April, 367 more in May and another 60 in June. The largest share came in May, just before the June 3 local elections, reports Yonhap news agency.
These channels were terminated for sharing content that was either critical or supportive of the South Korean government and for expressing support for or disapproval of particular South Korean political parties or political figures.
Google had not terminated any South Korean YouTube channel between the second quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. During that span, Google shut down 9,173 channels linked to China, followed by 2,083 linked to Russia.
South Korea's media watchdog also concluded that U.S.-based Google and Apple violated related laws by abusing their dominance in their respective app marketplaces.