‘Dev bullying’ alleged as Ngmoco owner is sued

Dena, the social and mobile games giant, is being sued by two competitors in Japan for alleged breaches to antitrust law.

Social games group Gree, along with telecommunications firm KDDI, both claim Dena is trying to pressure developers to sign exclusive deals for its Mobage network. Dena has denied the allegations.

The claim is that Dena will not provide web links for games featured on Mobage if they also feature on Gree’s smaller network. Gree claim to have filed a cease and desist order back in June, warning the Ngmoco owner that it is practicing unfair business as stipulated by the Japanese FTC.

“These illegal acts have not only hampered our business but have had a negative impact on other elements of the internet industry such as social game developers and telephone carriers,” read a brief statement issued by Gree.

“Considering that this is still impacting many companies, we feel that this is a major barrier to ensuring a fair, competitive business environment.”

Dena issued a statement to the Japanese press though at the time claimed it had not received official notice of Gree’s complaint.

“It has been reported that Gree and KDDI have filed a lawsuit against Dena regarding claims that Dena violated Japan’s antitrust law,” the company said

“No contact had been made by the two companies to DeNA regarding the reported matter until today. Since Dena has not received the official statement of complaint, it is unable to confirm its content at this moment. The two companies issued a press release that reads as if DeNA has been violating the antitrust law, but there is no such fact.”