Japan’s anti-monopoly body orders Google to fix ad search limits affecting Yahoo WSOC TV [Video]

TOKYO — (AP) — Japan’s antitrust watchdog said Monday that U.S. search giant Google must fix its advertising search restrictions affecting Yahoo in Japan.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that its recent study of Google’s practices showed it was undermining fair competition in the advertising market.

Yahoo Japan Corp., which has since merged with the Japanese social media platform Line, began keyword-targeted search advertising services using Google’s technology after the two companies formed a tie-up in 2010.

The FTC alleges that Google had imposed restrictions in its search advertising agreement with Yahoo Japan that for more than seven years hindered its ability to compete in targeted search ads.

An FTC investigation into whether that violated the Anti-Monopoly Law led Google to drop the restrictions.

Google said in an emailed statement that it has cooperated fully with the commission’s probe, and stressed the commission has not found …