Competition Bureau expands investigation into Google ad space practises

By Ahmad Hathout The Competition Bureau is broadening the scope of its investigation into Google’s digital advertising dominance by looking into whether the search engine and video giant is leveraging its ad demand to limit the use of competing advertising tech facilitators. The competition watchdog had already gotten a court order in 2021 for its investigation into Google’s alleged use of its in-video ad space to force advertisers to use its own ad-buying tools – namely, DV360 – over rival alternatives, which the bureau suspects is anticompetitive conduct. A February filing in the Federal Court, however, revealed that the bureau...