Google has been fined 55 million dollars in Australia for violating competition rules. The Federal Court approved the agreed-upon penalty between the company and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Investigations revealed that from December 2019 to March 2021, Google had special agreements with local mobile operators Telstra and Optus. According to these contracts, Android phones sold by these operators were pre-installed exclusively with Google’s search engine. In return, the mobile operators received a share of Google’s advertising revenue.
Google admitted to this behavior during the court proceedings and cooperated with the regulator. Other parties — Telstra, Optus, and TPG — were not included in this case, as they had previously committed to relevant obligations before the commission.
This decision opens new opportunities in the Australian market. Alternative search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo can now collaborate with local operators. Android device manufacturers and mobile operators now have the right to set a different default search engine for each model. Previously, exclusive contracts enforced by Google prevented this.
It should be noted that this process in Australia differs somewhat from the European Union’s approach. In Europe, users are presented with a mandatory choice screen to select a search engine when setting up their device for the first time. In Australia, it is still unclear whether such a mandatory screen will be implemented.
