The Canadian Competition Bureau and Google are battling it out over alleged anti-competitive practices
Feb 18, 20255:07 PM EST
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Google is fighting back against the Competition Bureau of Canada, claiming that it’s not an advertising monopoly.
In a report from The Canadian Press, the Bureau alleges that because Google owns four of Canada’s largest online ad businesses, it has used this dominant position to discourage competition and innovation while also inflating advertising costs. The Bureau initially launched this suit on November 29th, 2024, but Google only just responded on February 17th.
Google rebutted the lawsuit by stating that advertising costs have remained stable or dropped, and that more competitors are always entering the market, diminishing the company’s influence over it. So, while Google’s presence in advertising has grown, that has more to do with the growth of the overall online advertising industry, rather than the company taking over the full market.
The American company denies that it’s acting illegally and says that the markets in which the Bureau alleges it’s acting like a monopoly are “untethered either to commercial reality or to proper and sensible economic and legal analyses.”
While the deliberation is still ongoing, the Bureau wants Google to sell off the advertising services ‘DoubleClick for Publishers’ and ‘AdX.’ In addition, Google would have to pay a fine of three times the value of the benefits it derived from the alleged anti-competitive practices. There is no mention of the total cost of the fine.
Google replied: “The very threat of such a fine will diminish or negate the incentives of Google, Google Canada and many other businesses to invest and innovate, thus undermining consumer welfare.”
Source: The Canadian Press
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