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Google Agrees to AU$55 Million Penalty in Australia Over Deals Blocking Rival Search Engines on Android Phones

A court will determine whether the AU$55 million proposal is adequate given the agreements' impact on handset search choices.

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Overview

  • Google agreed to pay AU$55 million in relation to anticompetitive agreements with Telstra and Optus, according to the competition regulator.
  • The deals required certain smartphones sold by those carriers to ship with only Google Search installed, excluding rival engines.
  • The restrictions were in place for 15 months and ended in March 2021.
  • In exchange for exclusivity, the carriers received a share of advertising revenue generated from those customers.
  • Google acknowledged the arrangements likely caused a significant restriction of competition and committed to remove preinstalled and default search clauses from its contracts, saying those terms have already been dropped.