Canadian Antitrust Watchdog Sues Google Over Unfair Competition Practices

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) -- The Canadian antitrust watchdog, the Competition Bureau, said on Friday that it has filed a lawsuit against Google over the company's abuse of dominating position in the online advertising market, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti.

"The Competition Bureau is taking legal action against Google for anti-competitive conduct in online advertising technology services in Canada. Following a thorough investigation, the Bureau has filed an application with the Competition Tribunal that seeks to remedy the conduct for the benefit of Canadians," the watchdog said in a statement.

Google has unlawfully tied several of its advertising tools to gain dominance in the market and leveraged its position to "distort auction dynamics," it found.

"The Bureau's position is that by implementing this anticompetitive conduct, Google has been able to entrench its dominance, prevent rivals from competing, inhibit innovation, inflate advertising costs, and reduce publishers' revenues," the statement read.

The regulator demanded Google sell two of its ad tools, namely the DFP server and the AdX exchange, and pay a fine three times the value of the benefit gained, or, if the number cannot be calculated, 3 per cent of global gross income.

"Google's conduct has prevented rivals from being able to compete on the merits of what they have to offer, to the detriment of Canadian advertisers, publishers, and consumers. We are taking our case to the Tribunal to stop this conduct and its harmful effects in Canada," the statement quoted Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell as saying.

The tech giant faces legal problems in the US as well. In August, a Washington, DC, court ruled that Google held a monopoly in the search market, thus violating US antitrust laws. The ruling came after the government filed the case in 2020, alleging that Google controlled the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that maintained its dominance.

Last month, in a court filing, the Justice Department proposed changing Google's structure in order to deprive it of the ability to use the Chrome web browser, the Play app store, and the Android operating system as advantages for the Google search engine to the detriment of competitors. Google has called the US Justice Department's proposal to change the company's structure "radical" and "harmful."

--BERNAMA-SPUNTIK/RIA NOVOSTI