The Competition Bureau is taking legal action against Google, following an investigation into anti-competitive conduct in the online advertising technology space in Canada. Google owns four of the largest online ad tech services used in Canada: DoubleClick for Publishers, AdX, Display & Video 360and Google Ads. It holds an estimated market share of 90% in publisher ad servers, 70% in advertiser networks, 60% in demand-side platforms and 50% in ad exchanges. The Bureau’s position is that Google unlawfully tied its various ad tech tools together to maintain its market dominance, distorted auction dynamics by giving its own tools preferential access to ad inventory, took negative margins in certain circumstances to disadvantage rivals, and dictated the terms on which its own publisher customers could transact with rival ad tech tools. The Bureau’s application to the Competition Tribunal seeks an order that would require Google to sell two of its ad tech tools (its publisher ad server, DFP, and its ad exchange, AdX); direct Google to pay a penalty in compliance with the Competition Act; and prohibit the digital giant from continuing to engage in anticompetitive practices. Read more here.
