Türkiye's competition watchdog on Friday announced it had launched an investigation into Alphabet Inc.'s Google due to some practices regarding payment services in its Play Store.
In a statement, the Competition Authority (RK) said the investigation aimed at determining whether the technology giant violated the competition law.
The investigation looks to address the allegation that Google violated the rules by requiring the application developers who want to distribute applications in its Play Store to use its own payment system, Google Play Billing.
The regulator said Google also appeared to prevent developers from informing users about alternative payment options.
A preliminary investigation was conducted as part of the "Mobile Ecosystems Industry Review," raising suspicions that Google was imposing restrictions on payment services for app developers.
The preliminary investigation revealed that Google requires the use of its own payment system for in-app purchases and does not allow app developers to inform users about alternative payment methods.
After the preliminary investigation, a further probe has been decided to be opened about Google, the RK said.
The authority's investigation decisions do not imply that the undertakings under investigation violated the relevant law and are or will be sanctioned.
Google has been under intense scrutiny in Türkiye over the last year, facing both investigations and financial penalties.
More than a month ago, the company was hit with an administrative fine of around TL 355 million ($8.87 million) for failing to comply with regulatory obligations.
The antitrust body said Google was found to have implemented certain designs that violated regulations during the compliance process of a previous investigation.
In June, the RK launched a separate probe into Google's Performance Max (PMAX) to determine if the AI-powered ad campaign product violates competition laws. The investigation will examine whether Google has engaged in unfair practices against advertisers and if it has hindered competition through data consolidation with PMAX.
In December, the company was fined TL 2.61 billion for taking advantage of its dominant position in the ad server services market. That came after a fine of TL 482 million over what the regulator said was Google's failure to fulfill obligations related to hotel searches.
