Google fined $36 million in Australia, admits to deals that ‘substantially’ impacted competition

Google has agreed to pay a fine of $35.8 million in Australia amidst anti-competitive allegations, reports Reuters. The tech giant, as per the report, was accused by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of paying the country's two largest telcos to pre-install its search application on Android smartphones, excluding rival search engines. Admitting that the arrangement “had a substantial impact on competition”, Google agreed to pay a 55 million Australian dollar ($36 million) fine as stated above. The Reuters report quotes ACCC Chair Gina-Cass Gottlieb who said “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”. Google has been accused of striking anticompetitive deals with Telstra and Optus that restricted Android phones to only pre-install Google Search, excluding rival search engines. In exchange, the telcos reportedly received a share of the advertising revenue. The agreements, which ran for 15 months until March 2021, led regulators to demand changes, with Google now committing under a court-enforceable undertaking to remove such restrictions from future contracts.A Google spokesperson told the news agency that the company was pleased to resolve the ACCC's concerns which involved "provisions that haven't been in our commercial agreements for some time"."We are committed to providing Android device makers more flexibility to pre-load browsers and search apps, while preserving the offerings and features that help them innovate, compete with Apple, and keep costs low," the spokesperson added.