World’s fourth most populous country bans sale of Google smartphones

Indonesia has officially banned the sale of Pixel smartphones made by Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) due to new rules that require certain devices sold domestically to contain at least 40% of locally manufactured parts.

“We are pushing these rules so that there’s fairness for all investors in Indonesia,” Industry Ministry spokesperson Febri Hendri Antoni Arief declared, saying it would “create added value and deepen the industry structure.”

Only days ago, the world’s fourth most populous country blocked sales of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 16 for the same reason, with the tech giant failing to meet a $95M investment commitment.

Local content rules and protectionist measures have seen an uptick across the globe, but the new requirements in Indonesia may not make a big dent in the popular U.S. brands. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Apple (AAPL) are not even among Indonesia’s top five smartphone companies.