JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia said it had banned the sale of smartphones made by Alphabet’s Google over rules requiring the use of locally made components, days after blocking sales of the company’s iPhone 16. tech giant Apple for the same reason.

Indonesia has blocked sales of Google Pixel phones because the company failed to comply with rules requiring some smartphones sold in the country to contain at least 40% locally made parts.

“We are pushing for these rules to be fair for all investors in Indonesia,” Industry Ministry spokesman Febri Hendri Antoni Arief said on Thursday. “Google products do not follow the system we have defined and therefore cannot be sold here.”

Google said its Pixel phones are currently not officially distributed in Indonesia.

Febri said consumers can buy Google Pixel phones abroad, provided they pay the necessary taxes, adding that the country would consider deactivating illegally sold phones.

The blockage comes a week after Indonesia said it had blocked iPhone 16 sales domestically, also for non-compliance with local content rules.

To comply with these rules, companies generally increase the use of domestic components, through partnerships with local suppliers or by sourcing spare parts domestically.

Google and Apple are not among the major smartphone manufacturers in Indonesia. The top two smartphone makers in the first quarter of 2024 were China’s OPPO and South Korea’s Samsung, research firm IDC said in May.

Indonesia has a sizable and technology-loving population, making the Southeast Asian country a key target market for technology-related investments.

Bhima Yudhistira, director of the think tank Center for Economic and Legal Studies, said the move constitutes “pseudo” protectionism that harms consumers and affects investor confidence.

“This creates a negative sentiment for investors looking to enter Indonesia,” he said.

(Reporting by Bernadette Christina and Stanley Widianto; editing by Lincoln Feast.)