Canada's antitrust watchdog sues Google alleging anti-competitive conduct in advertising

Google has abused its dominant position in online advertising in Canada by engaging in conduct that locks market participants into using its own ad tech tools, excluding competitors, and distorting the competitive process,

Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, said in a statement

Imagine if the ASX owned and controlled the majority of brokerages buying and selling securities on that exchange, so that it could preference transactions that benefit its own interests above those of the people wanting to trade,

Phibbs said

Maurice Blackburnmember of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

We believe that the tech giant’s conduct … foreclosed rivals and tied businesses to its services in a manner that we are concerned is inconsistent with lawful competition,

Maurice Blackburn principal Miranda Nagy said in a statement

Over more than a decade, Google’s vertical integration and strength in ad tech services has allowed it to engage in a range of conduct which has lessened competition over time and entrenched its dominant position,

the ACCC said at the time

We’ve had the benefit of almost a de facto discovery of sorts, through what the DOJ has done,

he said

Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,

Dan Taylor, vice president of Global Ads at Google, said in a statement

No other single ad tech provider has Google's scale or reach across the ad tech stack, with over 200 billion Canadian web ad transactions flowing through Google's ad tech tools in 2022,

the bureau said