The settlement ends a two-year legal battle after regulators — acting on a complaint filed by Yandex, Google’s main competitor in Russia — found that Google apps were being given prominence over rivals on Android-based smartphones.

Under the agreement, which is to last for six years and nine months, Google will have to sign new contracts with manufacturers that allow them to pre-install competitors’ apps on Android phones’ home screens.

Google and Yandex agreed that further versions of Chrome and the Android search widget will give Russian users the option of switching to Yandex’s search engine. The changes, which will take place in the next few months, will come as default on new Android phones and be implemented in future versions of Chrome for phones already in use.

“We are happy to continue to offer our services to users in Russia,” Matt Sucherman, deputy general counsel for Google, said in a statement.

Yandex shares on Nasdaq rose almost 7 per cent following the news.

Yandex said it expects its share of the Russian-language search market on Android to grow above 50 per cent after the settlement takes effect. The company, which controls more than half the Russian search market on desktops, accounts for 38 per cent of Russian-language searches on mobile.

The company filed the complaint in early 2015 after Google signed contracts with manufacturers that gave its own apps exclusivity over the first screen selection offered to Android users. “We couldn’t get on the second screen, or the tenth screen,” Yandex chief executive Arkady Volozh said.

Mr Volozh hopes the Russian settlement will influence similar proceedings against Google in the EU, Turkey and South Korea. “This is a unique situation,” he said.

Last month, the anti-monopoly watchdog said Apple’s Russian subsidiary had illegally ordered retailers to fix prices of its iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 products.

/Financial Times/

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