Google has agreed to spend $500 million over 10 years to overhaul its compliance system, settling a shareholder lawsuit accusing the company of violating antitrust laws.
The preliminary settlement in a so-called “derivative lawsuit” against Alphabet (Google’s parent company) executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, was filed late on May 30. The agreement must be approved by U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco.
The changes include the creation of an independent board committee to oversee risk and compliance, a responsibility previously held by the Alphabet Board's Audit and Compliance Committee.
Additionally, Alphabet will also establish an executive vice president-level committee to handle legal and compliance issues, reporting directly to CEO Pichai.
In addition, a separate compliance committee consisting of Google product leads and internal compliance experts will also be established.
The reforms are a sweeping overhaul of Alphabet’s compliance function that will require a deep cultural shift, according to shareholder lawyers. The reforms will have to be maintained for at least four years, and shareholders will not receive any money from the deal.
Attorney Patrick Coughlin, representing shareholders, said on June 2 that this was one of the largest agreements ever to spend money on legal compliance activities.
Previously, a group of shareholders led by two Michigan state pension funds accused Google's leadership and board of directors of breaching their fiduciary duties by exposing the company to antitrust liability related to the fields of search, advertising technology (Ad Tech), Android operating system and application distribution.
The announcement of the deal came on the same day that U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington — who last August found Google violated federal antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly in search — completed a hearing to consider how to handle the violation.
Judge Mehta is expected to rule before August. In addition, the US Department of Justice proposed requiring Google to sell the Chrome browser and share search data with competitors./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/google-chi-500-trieu-usd-dan-xep-cao-buoc-vi-pham-luat-chong-doc-quyen-post1042217.vnp
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