(Reuters) -Alphabet’s Google was taken to court by Australia’s regulator on Monday over the company’s “anti-competitive” Google Search deals with telecom operators Telstra and Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus.
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 ($35.8 million), the ACCC said.
The regulator has accepted an undertaking from Google Asia Pacific and its parent company, Google LLC, committing to removing certain pre-installations and default search engine restrictions from contracts with Android phone makers and telcos.
“Today’s outcome… created the potential for millions of Australians to have greater search choice in the future, and for competing search providers to gain meaningful exposure to Australian consumers,” ACCC Chair Gina-Cass Gottlieb said in a statement.
Google, Telstra and Optus did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
($1 = A$1.5349)
(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
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