Google agreed to pay a fine of $ 55 million ($ 35.8 million) in Australia on Monday, as the consumer Watchdog found that it was hurt in competition to establish his search application on Android phone, except for rival search engines by paying the country’s two largest telcoses.

The fine expands a bumpy period for the alphabet-ownership, opening the new tab in Australia, where a court last week ruled against it in the lawsuits that accused the Fortnite manufacturer of the Fortnite manufacturer, in the case that accuses Google and Apple by the epic games, opens the new tab to stop the stores in their operating system.

Google’s YouTube was also added to an Australian ban on social media platforms last month, which accepts users under the age of 16, reversing the first decision to exempt the video-sharing site.
On competitive tie-ups with Australian Telkos, the country’s consumer guard said on Monday that Google made deals with Telstra, opening new tabs and optus, under which the tech giant shared advertising revenue generated from Google Search on Android devices in the late 2019 and early 2021.

Google admitted that this system had a great impact on competition from rival search engines, and stopped signing similar deals while agreeing to fine, said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC).

ACCC President Gina-Case Gottlib said, “Today’s results … made the ability to make more search options for millions of Australians, and to compete with search providers to achieve meaningful risks for Australian consumers,” said ACCC President Gina-CAS GOTLIB.

Google and ACC have jointly submitted to the federal court that Google should pay a fine of $ 55 million.

The court still will have to decide whether the fine is appropriate, the ACCC said, but the cooperation between the regulator and Google has helped to avoid long litigation.

A Google spokesperson said the company was happy to solve the concerns of ACC which included “provisions that were not in our commercial agreements for some time”.

The spokesperson said, “We are committed to providing more flexibility to Android device manufacturers for pre-load browsers and search apps, while preserving offerings and features that help them to new, compete with Apple, and keep the cost low,” the spokesperson said.

Google has Android. A Telstra spokesperson told Reuters in an earlier statement that it and the Singapore telecom owned Optus opened the new tab, fully collaborated with ACCC and had not signed the agreements with Google to pre-install their search product since 2024.

Singtel was not immediately available for comment.