Google has found itself in legal trouble again, this time in Canada. The Canadian Competition Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Google and has accused the company of anti-competitive practices in the online advertising sector. On Thursday, the Bureau shared that it has sought an order from the Competition Tribunal to force Google to divest two of its ad tech tools. Further, it wants to impose a financial penalty also to ensure its future compliance with Canadian competition laws.
The investigation in the same regard initially began in 2020 and the conclusion came out this year. As per the findings, Google holds a dominant position across the online ad tech ecosystem in Canada and it has allegedly abused this dominance to solidify its market power and benefit more over the competition.
Google has dismissed these allegations by the Competition Bureau and said that they overlook the fierce competition in the online advertising market. Dan Taylor, Google’s VP of Global Ads, said, “Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers.”
Google is already dealing with a similar case in the US. The Department of Justice has accused the tech giant of monopolising ad markets. The closing arguments over the same were presented earlier this week. Google has a similar stand and says that the DOJ’s claims are based on a narrow view of the market. It is ignoring competition and legitimate business practices.
It had even faced similar challenges with the European Union also earlier this year. To settle it Google proposed selling its ad exchange to resolve the EU antitrust investigation. However, the EU rejected the offer saying that it was insufficient.
Let’s see how Google comes out of all of these cases and what changes it makes to its structures to adhere to the laws of the respective countries.