Image credit: The Byteline

Canada’s Competition Bureau has launched a lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of engaging in anti-competitive practices in the online advertising market. The Bureau is seeking significant measures, including the sale of key ad tech tools and a financial penalty, to ensure compliance with Canada's competition laws.

In a statement released Thursday, the Competition Bureau announced it had filed an application with the Competition Tribunal. The agency is demanding that Google divest two of its advertising technology tools and pay a penalty to address its alleged dominance in the ad tech market.

The investigation, initiated in 2020, aimed to determine whether Google’s practices harmed competition in the online advertising space. Earlier this year, the probe expanded to include Google’s advertising technology services. The Bureau concluded that Google is the largest provider in Canada’s ad tech ecosystem and has “abused its dominant position” to entrench its market power.

Google Pushes Back

In response, Google denied the allegations, asserting that the lawsuit overlooks the competitive nature of the advertising market.

“Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,” said Dan Taylor, Google’s Vice President of Global Ads. “This complaint ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice, and we look forward to making our case in court.”

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The lawsuit comes on the heels of similar legal battles Google is facing globally. In the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused Google of monopolizing the publisher ad server and advertiser ad network markets. Google, however, has argued that the DOJ’s case selectively focuses on a narrow portion of the online advertising industry and ignores broader competition in the sector.

Closing arguments in the U.S. case were delivered earlier this week, with Google maintaining its stance that its business practices are lawful and that the online advertising market remains highly competitive.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Google offered earlier this year to sell its ad exchange business to resolve an EU antitrust investigation. However, the proposal was rejected by European publishers, who deemed the offer insufficient.

Canada’s lawsuit underscores growing scrutiny of Google’s dominance in the digital advertising market worldwide. Should the Competition Bureau succeed in forcing Google to divest its ad tech tools, it could set a significant precedent for how governments regulate Big Tech companies.

The case also signals that Canada, like the United States and the European Union, is ramping up efforts to rein in the market power of dominant tech firms and promote a more competitive landscape in digital advertising.

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