July 6, 2025

Welcome to Letters from CAMP, a newsletter on anti-monopoly activity in Canada and abroad, brought to you by the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. In this instalment we have:

• A Canadian coalition urges the Carney government to cede no further ground to Big Tech interests
• A video game developer uses Canada’s recently reformed competition laws to push back against Google
• Anti-monopoly experts push for European independence from Big Tech

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Now let’s dive in.

Canadian Coalition Urges Government to Stand Up to Big Tech

In the ongoing trade tensions with the U.S., Canada appears to be on the back foot. Late Sunday evening, the Canadian government rescinded its Digital Services Tax (DST), two days after Donald Trump blamed the tax for derailing trade talks. While negotiations appear to have restarted, the retreat suggests that Canada’s present and future efforts to regulate Big Tech may be seen as bargaining chips in the back-and-forth with the Americans.

This week, CAMP, along with a group of Canadian unions, scholars, public servants, and civil society organizations, penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne urging an end to concessions to Big Tech and a commitment to Canada’s digital sovereignty. As the U.S. increasingly intrudes into the sovereignty of countries around the world, Canada’s leaders need to stand up for our right to regulate how critical platforms operate within our borders.

While the DST, a 3% tax on revenues earned from Canadian users, was just one regulatory lever, its abandonment could be the prelude to concessions in other important policy areas such as competition, privacy, and data sovereignty. As readers of Letters know, the Competition Bureau is currently engaged in an important competition lawsuit against Google’s monopoly over Canada’s multi-billion dollar online advertising market. Should Donald Trump decide that the Bureau is treating an American company very unfairly, we should expect similar threats to derail the enforcement effort. Doing so would not only undermine Canada’s rule of law but also create an unfair advantage for major U.S. firms who can bend the President’s ear.

Recognizing the complexity of ongoing negotiations, Canadians need reassurance that their sovereignty isn’t being traded away. The effort to push back against Big Tech crosses multiple policy areas – competition, privacy, public safety – and we need to be able to enforce these policies to protect the interests of Canadians. In 2025, Canada is now all too familiar with the need to insulate ourselves from our overreliance on the U.S. and Big Tech. A strong stance against further concessions is the first step in this process.

📰CAMP in the News📰

• Patel and Ren, Mark Carney receives praise, blowback after he ‘caved’ to Donald Trump’s demand to scrap tech tax (Toronto Star)

Game Developer Puts Competition Law to Work Against Google’s Search Monopoly

One of the most exciting reforms to Canada’s Competition Act was the opening up of private access to the Competition Tribunal. But what exactly is private access? In short, it’s the ability for a company, group of companies, or civil society organization to bring a case against a monopolist, rather than waiting around for the Competition Bureau to act.

This week, we saw one of the first major cases test the waters of the new private access system. Brought by video game developer Alexander Martin, the case focuses on Google’s search revenue share agreements with Apple, the core of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) successful case against the search giant, and their effect on competition in the online search market.

The suit argues that Google controls a substantial amount of the online search market (over 90%) and has secured that position with anticompetitive agreements with Apple since 2002. These agreements make Google the default search engine on iPhones and ensure Apple has a $20 billion annual incentive not to develop a competing product. Martin relies on internet searches by potential buyers to find his games, and his living depends on optimizing his marketing and content for Google search without competing alternatives. Martin’s case is important because his situation is not unique. Businesses across the country must conform to the norms set by Google and other technology firms that enjoy the rulemaking power that market dominance brings.

While the launch of the suit is an encouraging first step, the real test is now whether the Competition Tribunal decides to hear the case. Private access to competition law has generated landmark cases in countries like the U.S. and Canada is long overdue for its own regime. CAMP will be watching closely as this case and others start to give independent businesses another tool to push back against monopolies.

📚What We’re Reading📚

• Fauteux, Should global media giants shape our cultural and media policy? Lessons from satellite radio(The Conversation)
• Bergen, ‘Build, baby, build’ must include Canada’s key digital infrastructure — not just roads, ports and pipelines (Toronto Star)
• ​Proton joins suit against Apple for predatory practices that harm developers and consumers (Proton)

Big Tech’s Sovereignty Threat Goes Global

Canada is not the only country facing sovereignty threats from U.S. Big Tech. High on the list of American demands for the European Union in trade negotiations is backing down on the bloc’s regulation of dominant digital platforms, including the landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA). Writing for Politico this week, Open Markets’ Cori Crider and technologist Robin Berjon call for the EU to stand firm in its defense of its citizens.

Big Tech is working overtime because every day Europeans and Canadians agree that these platforms need stronger regulations. The need for regulation is even understood in the United States, where a ban against state regulation of AI was recently defeated as part of Trump’s recent legislative efforts. In countries around the world, including their own, Big Tech is trying tie the hands of regulators against the wishes of the public.

In their piece, Crider and Berjon point to the need for alternatives to Big Tech infrastructure, including building energy for an independent Eurostack. As a like-minded ally looking to insulate ourselves from Big Tech’s sovereignty threat, Canada should support efforts to create these alternatives. By diversifying key digital markets, Canada can begin to create an economy resilient to the kind of country-to-country bullying we see today. As our government tries to deepen its trade relations with the EU, digital sovereignty and technology partnerships should be at the top of the list.

If you have any monopoly tips or stories you’d like to share, drop us a line at hello@antimonopoly.ca

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