Russia’s competition watchdog has confirmed that it is investigating Google over allegedly abusing its domination of Android smartphone software on phones made by third party manufacturers.

The watchdog opened the case to assess whether Google has violated Russian anti-monopoly laws after reviewing a complaint from Russia’s biggest search company Yandex. It has complained that Android’s default search is Google and that the mobile software includes a bundle of Google apps.

“We have studied the complaint and decided to open proceedings regarding the violation of anti-monopoly regulation,” a spokeswoman for the Russian federal anti-monopoly service (FAS) watchdog said.

“Device makers are free to install the apps they choose and consumers always have complete control over the apps on their devices,” said a Google spokesperson.

Yandex has a 60% share of the Russian search market, and offers rival services to Google’s YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Chrome Browser and Translate. Three smartphone vendors in Russia – Prestige, Fly and Explay – were blocked from pre-installing Yandex services on their Android devices last year.

Terms of use for Google’s version of Android, which comes with access to its app store, place restrictions on what manufacturers can install by default on their devices, and conditions on placement of Google apps and services on the smartphones and tablets.

Spokespeople from Google’s Russian office denied anti-competitive behaviour.

Android held an 81.2% global market share in 2014 according to research firm Strategy Analytics, with Apple’s iOS securing 15% of the market and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 3%.

Android is available in several versions. An open source version called the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is available for anyone to use without restriction and forms the basis of Amazon’s Fire OS, Xiaomi’s Miui and many others, but it does not come with access to Google’s Play Store.

Google’s version of Android is also based on AOSP, but comes integrated with Google’s services.

The Russian investigation comes after European regulators assess a possible challenge to Google’s mobile software business.

European regulators are laying the groundwork for a case centred on whether Google abuses the 80% market share of Android to promote services from maps to search, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The European Commission has reportedly sent handset makers questionnaires asking whether there was a requirement set by Google that they should not pre-install apps, products or services on mobile devices that compete with Google software such as its search engine, app store and maps.

Google is also under scrutiny in the US, although a judge said in December she would require consumers suing Google over Android to submit more factual details in order for an antitrust lawsuit to proceed.