Alphabet’s Google was taken to court by Australia’s regulator on Monday over the company’s “anticompetitive” Google Search deals with telecom operators Telstra and Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus.
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Google Asia-Pacific reached “understandings” with Telstra and Optus between December 2019 and March 2021 to pre-install only Google Search on Android phones they sold.
“In return, Telstra and Optus received a share of the revenue Google generated from ads displayed to consumers when they used Google Search on their Android phones,” the ACCC said in a statement.
Google has cooperated with the regulator, admitted liability and agreed to jointly submit to the Federal Court that it should pay a total penalty of A$55 million (US$35.8 million), according to the ACCC.
The regulator has accepted an undertaking from Google Asia-Pacific and its parent company, Google, committing to removing certain pre-installations and default search engine restrictions from contracts with Android phone makers and telcos.
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