Google is back in court facing its second lawsuit in a week after Canada’s Competition Bureau found the tech giant guilty of anticompetitive conduct in advertising. Canada’s antitrust watchdog wants Google to pay a fine and sell two of its advertising services.
Guilty of abusing its dominant position
Canada’s antitrust watchdog has requested that Google sell two of its advertising tools for abusing its market position by illegally linking the ad tools to ensure it maintained market dominance, which the tech giant then used to sway ad auctions in its favor.
The Competition Bureau agreed with the watchdog’s request, saying it had found Google guilty of “unlawfully” tying its advertising tools and that it had “abused its dominant position.”
The Competition Bureau gave this statement:
- “Through a series of calculated decisions, taken over the course of multiple years, Google has excluded competitors and entrenched itself at the center of online advertising.”
- “Google’s near-total control of the ad-tech [software] is a function of premeditated design and conduct, rather than superior competitive performance or happenstance.”
The sentence
Canada’s watchdog agency has asked the Competition Tribunal to force Google to sell its advertising technology tools, AdX and DoubleClick for Publishers, and pay 3% of its global revenue in a fine to “promote compliance” with the country’s competition laws.
Google says it plays fair
Google has denied the watchdog agencies’ accusation and told the Competition Tribunal that its advertising tools provide essential financial income to websites and apps, that the agency is ignoring the market’s intense competition, and that “ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice.”
Google’s vice president of global advertising, Dan Taylor, gave this statement, saying the agency:
- “Ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice, and we look forward to making our case in court.”
- “Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers.”
Sell Chrome, Ad tech, and the 8.8 billion dollar fine
Canada’s lawsuit comes a week after the US Justice Department requested that Judge Metha, who found Google guilty of violating antitrust laws by running a monopoly, enforce the sale of Chrome, among other remedies.
And the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) agreed to proceed with a $8.8 billion class action lawsuit brought by consumer rights advocate Nikki Stopford, who accused Google of anti-competitive practices by abusing its dominance in Search, which increased the price UK companies paid to advertise on the tech giant’s platform and led to higher prices for UK consumers.
