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Investing.com-- Alphabet Inc’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is facing an A$55 million ($35.4 million) penalty from Australia’s competition watchdog over allegedly anti-competitive behaviour in the past with major local telecom firms.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Monday that it had commenced federal court proceedings against Google Asia Pacific over the company’s pre-installation of Google Search on Android mobile phones, in conjunction with telecos Telstra and Optus.
The ACCC said that Google admitted liability in the case and had agreed to jointly submit to the Court that it should pay a A$55 million penalty.
The ACCC alleged that Google reached understandings with Telstra and Optus between December 2019 and March 2021, which required the two telecos to only pre-install Google Search on Android phones they sold, and not other search engines.
In turn, Tesltra and Optus received a share of Google ad revenues, the ACCC said.
The competition watchdog said Google had signed an undertaking which the ACCC said it had accepted in addressing its competition concerns.
Australian telecos Telstra, Optus, and TPG had last year submitted undertakings to address competition concerns.
Monday’s proceedings come as the ACCC launched a broader investigation into Google Search and potentially anti-competitive behavior. The watchdog had also launched an inquiry into default search engines and customer choice.
Google is also facing antitrust cases in the U.S. over allegations of illegally monopolizing the advertising market and operating a search engine monopoly.