Canada's anti-trust watchdog sues Google

New Delhi: Canada's Competition Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.'s Google, alleging anti-competitive behaviour in the online advertising market. The antitrust watchdog claims that Google has abused its dominant position by engaging in practices that lock market participants into using its advertising technology tools.

The Bureau is seeking an order from the Competition Tribunal to require Google to divest two of its ad tech tools and to impose a financial penalty on the company for its alleged anti-competitive conduct. The Competition Bureau's investigation found that Google gives its own ad tech tools preferential treatment in terms of access to ad inventory, sometimes selling ads at a loss to block competitors, and setting terms that disadvantage other ad tech providers.

The bureau has urged the tribunal to mandate Google's divestiture of its publisher ad server, DoubleClick for Publishers, and its ad exchange, AdX. As per the news reports, Google is estimated to dominate the market with a 90% share in publisher ad servers, 70% in advertiser networks, 60% in demand-side platforms, and 50% in ad exchanges.

In response, Google has stated that the complaint from the Canadian watchdog "ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice," and the company looks forward to defending its practices in court. Google maintains that its advertising technology tools benefit both websites and businesses by funding content and enabling effective customer reach.

This legal action in Canada comes amidst a backdrop of similar regulatory challenges Google faces globally, including in the United States and the European Union, where the company's advertising practices have been scrutinised for potentially anti-competitive behaviour.