The Competition Bureau is suing Google over alleged anti-competitive conduct in the tech giant’s online advertising business and wants the company to sell off two of its services and pay a penalty.
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The watchdog says such action is necessary because an investigation it conducted into Google has found the company unlawfully tied its ad tech tools together to maintain its market dominance.
The bureau says that dominance has discouraged competition from rivals, inhibited innovation, inflated advertising costs and reduced publisher revenues.
To address that dominance, the bureau wants Google to sell off its publisher ad server DFP and its ad exchange AdX.
It has also demanded the company pay a monetary penalty equal to three times the value of the benefit it derived from anti-competitive practices, or three per cent of Google’s worldwide gross revenues.
Dan Taylor, Google’s vice-president of global ads, says the bureau’s action ignores the plenty of choice he feels ad buyers and sellers already have. He adds Google is looking forward to making its case in court.