Google has agreed to pay a $36 million fine to Australian regulators after secret deals with the country’s biggest phone companies were found to break competition laws. The tech giant made arrangements with Telstra and Optus that blocked rival search engines from Android phones sold to customers.
According to Al Jazeera, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Monday that Google admitted to anti-competitive conduct between December 2019 and March 2021. During this period, the company paid the two largest Australian telecommunications companies to only install Google Search on Android devices they sold to consumers.
