In what is representative of a latest in a growing list of global regulatory problems for the American search giant – Google, Russian antitrust officials fined a relatively small penalty of $6.8 million on Thursday on the company.

By favoring some of its digital services over those of rivals, including the Russian company Yandex, Google had abused its market position with Android, its mobile operating system, Russian authorities ruled last year.

Offerings, like digital maps or search, in the Android operating system that powers a majority of smartphones and other mobile devices in Russia were not able to be included by Google’s rivals, the Federation Antimonopoly Service said as part of its ruling.

Russia’s competition rules applied to all companies operating in the country, including foreign ones, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

Breaking of any rues have been vehemently denied by Google. The case against Google was opened last year after Yandex complained that its services for Android were being treated unfairly and the Silicon Valley company said that it is still appealing the Android case in Russia.

“We have received notice of the fine from F.A.S. and will analyze closely before deciding our next steps,” Google said in a statement on Thursday.

In Russia Yandex retains more than 50 percent of the market for internet search, according to industry statistics, and Google has failed so far to do dominate the market in Russia even as it dominates its service areas in much of the world.

At a time of mounting global competition investigations into the search giant’s activities, the ruling against Android is the newest setback for the company, even while the Russian fine is akin to a rounding error compared with Google’s $75 billion in annual revenue.

Google was charged to have unfairly used Android to promote its own services — like Google Maps and Google Search — over those of its rivals in Europe by Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s top antitrust official, in April this year.

In a separate competition case, Google has been accused of favoring some of its search services over those of rivals, by the European Union officials. A third charge linked to Google search services offered to third-party websites, like newspapers and online retailers was filed by them in July.

Saying that it competes on equal terms with companies like Yelp and Microsoft, among others, Google denies wrongdoing in those cases. Cellphone makers are free to use Android-based services provided by rivals, it also says. Google takes a cut from advertisements displayed on online searches and does not make money directly from licensing the mobile operating system to companies.

In the United States the Federal Trade Commission is considering claims that Google’s activities linked to Android are uncompetitive. The American officials had eventually decided not to bring any charges against the company after they investigated whether the company had unfairly favored some of its services over those of rivals within its search engine.

Last year, the company was sent a letter outlining its concerns about search dominance and anticompetitive behavior by the national antitrust authority in India which is also one of Google’s fast-growing markets.

(Adapted from CNBC & The New York times)

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