Google is facing another lawsuit! The Canadian Competition Authority has taken action to accuse its online advertisements of being anti competitive

The Canadian antitrust regulator, Competition Canada, announced on Thursday (November 28) that it is suing Google for alleged anti competitive behavior in its online advertising business. Moreover, the agency requires Google to sell two of its advertising technology services, pay fines, and prohibit Google from continuing to engage in anti competitive behavior.

A statement from the Competition Bureau stated that the investigation found that Google, as Canada’s largest provider of online advertising technology, abused its market dominance by engaging in anti competitive behavior, “illegally” bundling its advertising technology tools together, preventing competition from rivals, suppressing innovation, raising advertising costs, and reducing revenue for distribution agencies.

Canadian Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell said, “Google abused its dominant position in Canada’s online advertising industry by locking market participants in using its own advertising technology tools, excluding competitors, and distorting the competitive process

This matter has been submitted to the Competition Tribunal, a quasi judicial body responsible for hearing cases related to violations of the Competition Law raised by the Competition Commissioner.

The Canadian Competition Authority has also filed an application with the Competition Tribunal, requesting the court to order Google to sell its publisher advertising server DoubleClick for Publishers and its advertising trading platform AdX. It is estimated that Google has a market share of 90%, 70%, 60%, and 50% in publisher ad servers, advertiser networks, demand side platforms, and ad trading markets, respectively.

However, Google believes that the online advertising market is a fiercely competitive field.

Google’s Vice President of Global Advertising, Dan Taylor, responded in a statement that the Canadian Competition Commission’s lawsuit ignores the fact that advertising buyers and sellers actually have many choices, and there is fierce competition among them. Taylor stated that Google intends to defend itself against this accusation.

The lawsuit by Canadian regulatory authorities is the latest legal case facing Google. Previously, Google had been ruled that its search business violated US antitrust laws.

This month, the US Department of Justice submitted a 23 page document proposing a spin off of Google, calling for comprehensive punishment including selling its industry-leading Chrome web browser and imposing restrictions to prevent Google’s Android system from favoring its own search engine.

At the same time, the US Department of Justice is considering splitting Google’s Android division and Google Play app store. The Ministry of Justice hopes that judges can provide Google with two options: either to sell the Android system, or to prohibit Google from forcing users to use its services on Android phones.