Google has agreed to pay a $36-million fine for signing anticompetitive deals with Australia’s two largest telecommunications companies that banned the installation of competing search engines on some smartphones, the U.S. tech giant and Australia’s competition watchdog said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement it had commenced proceedings in the Australian Federal Court on Monday against the Singapore-based Google Asia Pacific division. The court will decide whether the $36-million penalty is appropriate.

Under the anticompetitive agreements, which were in place for 15 months until March 2021, Telstra and Optus pre-installed only Google Search on Android phones sold to customers. Other search engines were excluded. In return, the companies received a s

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