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The missing pieces of the Google Search Australian antitrust penalty puzzle

By James Panichi ( August 18, 2025, 09:15 GMT | Comment) -- Today’s announcement that Google will pay a fine of $35.8 million for competition-law violations over its preloading of Google Search appears to have brought to an end the long-running probe by Australia’s competition enforcer. Yet questions remain about how the settlement over the arguably light penalty was reached and why Apple, the star of a US lawsuit covering the same allegations, hasn’t been mentioned.It’s hardly surprising that Google would have jumped at the opportunity to pay a fine of just A$55 million ($35.8 million) for what, we now know, were significant antitrust violations in Australia linked to preloading app deals with local phone companies....

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