Federal Court Fines Chegg $500,000 for Providing Cheating Services

The Federal Court of Australia has fined the education technology company Chegg and its subsidiary Chegg India a total of $500,000 for providing academic cheating services. The court found that in 2021 and 2022, Chegg provided prepared answers to university assessment questions, which students then submitted with minimal or no substantive edits. The case was brought by the national higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).

Court Ruling and Violations

The judgment was delivered by Justice Craig Lenehan in March 2026. The court found Chegg violated Australia's anti-cheating laws on three occasions.

The violations involved providing prepared answers to assessment tasks from Monash University in the subjects of information technology and water engineering.

The specific answers identified in court documents were the Water Surface Profiles Answer, the Programming Answer, and the Databases Answer. Justice Lenehan determined that students submitted these answers with minimal or no substantive edits, constituting the provision of an academic cheating service.

Regulatory Action and Rationale

TEQSA initiated legal action against Chegg in 2025. In its argument, TEQSA stated that contract cheating services threaten the reputation of Australian universities.

The agency also noted potential public consequences if graduates in fields such as engineering or medicine were to enter the workforce without required skills.

Following the ruling, TEQSA CEO Dr. Mary Russell issued a statement welcoming the court's decision.

Related Data on Academic Integrity

Data from Australian universities, cited in relation to the case, indicates a shift in the methods of academic misconduct:

• At the University of New South Wales (UNSW), proven contract cheating cases decreased from 232 in 2023 to 132 in 2024.
• During the same period, UNSW reported a 219% increase in cases of unauthorized use of generative artificial intelligence.

Chegg's Recent Business Developments

The court case coincides with several reported business developments for Chegg:

• The company's subscriber count declined from 8.1 million in 2022 to 2.87 million, with sources citing the year as either 2024 or 2025.
• In February 2025, Chegg filed legal action against Google, alleging a loss of website traffic due to Google's AI-generated search summaries.
• In October of either 2024 or 2025, Chegg reduced its workforce by 45%.

Additional Statement

In February of either 2025 or 2026, Kane Murdoch, Macquarie University's head of complaints, appeals and misconduct, was quoted as saying:

"Chegg is dead."