
Alphabet Inc.’s Google has agreed to commit $500 million over a decade to revamp its compliance structure and settle a shareholder lawsuit that accused the search engine power of antitrust violations.
The accord, filed Friday, addressed derivative litigation against executives at Alphabet, including CEO Sundar Pichai and company co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
“Over the years, we have devoted substantial resources to building robust compliance processes,” Google said in a statement, in which the company denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. “To avoid protracted litigation we’re happy to make these commitments.”
Lawyers for the shareholders said, “These reforms, rarely achieved in shareholder derivative actions, constitute a comprehensive overhaul of Alphabet’s compliance function.”
The compliance settlement occurred as U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who last summer found Google violated federal antitrust law to maintain dominance in search, completed a hearing to consider how to address the monopoly. Mehta plans to rule by August. The Department of Justice has proposed Google sell its Chrome browser, and share search data with rivals.
Alphabet is facing growing regulatory pressure. In addition to the search case, Google was found to have an illegal monopoly in April when a federal judge ruled its ad business severely limited competition and “substantially harmed” its customers.