CAMP Celebrates Competition Bureau's Defense of Competition in Online Advertising

November 28, 2024 – After expanding its investigation into Google earlier this year, today the Competition Bureau announced that it is launching legal action against the company for abusing its dominant position in online advertising, inflating the cost of advertising and reducing the revenue going to publishers.

The Bureau alleges that Google has engaged in a range of anticompetitive conduct that has had the effect of cementing its dominant position in online advertising. The conduct includes unlawful tying of services, providing preferential ad inventory access to its own services, engaging in predatory pricing, and limiting how customers can interact with competing tools. To remedy the anticompetitive conduct, the Bureau is seeking an order that would require Google to sell off key parts of its online advertising business, its publisher ad server (DFP) and ad exchange (AdX), levy a financial penalty equal to three times the benefit gained from the anticompetitive conduct, and prohibit the company from engaging in anticompetitive conduct in the future.

In response the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) released the following statement.

“The Competition Bureau’s decision to pursue legal action against Google’s dominance in online advertising represents a turning point for competition in Canada,” said Keldon Bester, Executive Director of CAMP. “Online advertising is a critical tool for every Canadian business trying to reach their customers, and monopolization of this market means inflated costs that are ultimately borne by consumers. A monopolized online advertising market also means less revenue for the publishers and news ecosystem that keeps Canadians informed and supports our democracy. By challenging Google’s dominance, the Competition Bureau is putting to work the new tools granted to the enforcer with unanimous support from federal MPs over the past year.”

Additional materials related to the Competition Bureau’s investigation can be found here