The Australian Federal Court ordered Google to pay a fine of $55 million after Google discovered that its agreement with local telecommunications companies to pre-install search engines on Android devices violated competition laws. ITNews writes about this.
The court found that the contracts Google's Asia-Pacific subsidiary entered into with Telstra and Optus between December 2019 and March 2021 were anti-competitive. The Google search engine is pre-installed on Android devices and configured as the default option.
The case against Google was initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The agency said Telstra and Optus received a share of revenue from ads shown to people when they used Google search on mobile devices.
Commission deputy chairman Mick Keogh said: “This fine will send a clear message to all companies about the serious and costly consequences of anti-competitive behaviour.”
Telstra and Optus are not involved in the proceedings. When their agreement with Google expired in 2024, they did not renew it. Google itself also admitted to anti-competitive actions.
