Canada sues Google over ad space dominance, seeks sale of key services

Canada has said it is suing Google over its alleged anti-competitive practices in online advertising business.

The country's antitrust watchdog Thursday said it wants the company to sell off two of its ad tech services and pay a fine.

The Competition Bureau said it found that Google "unlawfully" linked its ad tech tools to maintain a dominant market position.

The matter will now likely be heard at Canada's Competition Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body. 

According to the Associated Press, the bureau is seeking the tribunal to order Google to sell its publisher ad server, DoubleClick for Publishers, and its ad exchange, AdX. 

The bureau estimates Google holds a market share of 90 per cent in publisher ad servers, 70 per cent in advertiser networks, 60 per cent in demand-side platforms and 50 per cent in ad exchanges.

"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, AP reported.

Beset with similar allegations in the US, Google maintains the online advertising market is a highly competitive sector. 

The company's vice president of global ads, Dan Taylor in a statement said "ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice."

He added Google intends to defend itself against the allegation.

In the US, regulators want Google to be broken up over its alleged attempts to kill competition through its search engine. 

The proposed breakup includes a sale of Google's Chrome web browser and restrictions on Android from favouring its own search engine. 

Google is not alone in facing an institutional blowback over its overwhelming market share, leading to allegations of market dominance through unfair means. 

Earlier this month, Meta was fined nearly 800 million euros by the European Commission for abusing its social media dominance, allegedly by leveraging Facebook's reach to boost its classified ads section.

The Brussels-based body accused Facebook's parent company of stifling competition by "tying" its free Marketplace services with the social network. 

Image Source: Unsplash