Canada's competition watchdog wants to split Google's ad business

Canada's Competition Bureau is after Google, accusing the company of having anti-competitive conduct in the country's online advertising market and finding ways to "maintain and entrench its market power."

Google is the largest player in Canada's advertising space. The agency has sued Google and filed a complaint with the Competition Tribunal seeking an order that directs the search giant to pay a penalty, stop engaging in anti-competitive practices, and, above all, require Google to sell two of its ad tech tools.

"Google's conduct has prevented rivals from being able to compete on the merits of what they have to offer, to the detriment of Canadian advertisers, publishers and consumers. We are taking our case to the Tribunal to stop this conduct and its harmful effects in Canada,” Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, said in a statement.

For reference, online ads are shown to users when they visit websites and are used as a source of income to support expenses. These ads (called digital ad inventory) are bought and sold through automated auctions on sophisticated platforms individually known as ad tech tools. Moreover, the entire suite of tools used throughout the process is collectively known as the ad tech stack.

The agency asserts that Google has tried to maintain market dominance by unlawfully tying its various ad tech tools. It further adds that Google leveraged its position to distort auction dynamics by giving preferential ad inventory access to its own tools, taking negative margins in some cases to disadvantage rivals, and "dictating the terms on which its own publisher customers could transact with rival ad tech tools."

Google told Reuters in a statement that the complaint "ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice and we look forward to making our case in court."

This comes almost immediately after the Indian competition watchdog ordered an investigation against Google over its game app policy. The search giant's ad business previously went under the radar of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which attempts to break up Google's ad business. More recently, it was reported that the DOJ plans to potentially force the company to spin off its search business from the main company.

Source: Competition Bureau Canada

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