Canada Competition Bureau vs. Google: Implications for Canadian Businesses

Craig: welcome back to silicon scoop. if you thought apple versus epic games feud was an epic showdown, wait until you hear about canada's latest legal smackdown against google. that's right, folks. the canada competition bureau is taking google to court over its ad practices claiming they're anti competitive as that one friend who always orders the most expensive dish at dinner then suggests splitting the bill evenly. buckle up because this case could reshape the entire landscape of online advertising in canada. what do you think is going on here, john?

Jon: yeah. this is crazy. finally, canada has initiated this sorry, antitrust lawsuit against google. and what they're alleging is that the tech giant has engaged in anti competitive practices with its online advertising business. so the bureau's investigation, what they found was google has abused its dominant market position by tying its advertising technology tools together to maintain control over the ad tech. now some key points from doing some research. the lawsuit was announced just recently, november twenty eighth. and this is coming during a period when regulatory scrutiny of big tech companies is intensifying globally. and correct me if i'm wrong, craig. is this the first time that canada has actually grown some cojones, or were they did they take a hard stance with, with google and the news or social media and news?

Craig: or they did with social media news and backlinks, but the problem was, you know, google just said, fine. we won't link to you anymore. yeah. and then the traffic dropped so much that everybody came to a nice agreement behind the table, and everything's good now.

Jon: yeah. yeah. they're actually now paying. so they gave in, and i think they're now paying these social media sites for the news, i think.

Craig: yeah. but not nearly as much.

Jon: no. no. but still, they gave in. so what this is all what this is saying is that the competition bureau of canada, they're seeking to compel google to their best two of its ad tech services. one is doubleclick for publishers, and one is, it's advertising exchange ad x. these? i don't know anything about these two services.

Craig: the exchange ad x?

Jon: so, the doubleclick for publishers and its advertising exchange, those two tech ad tech services. because i don't know anything about them. i didn't look into them before this, but i didn't know if you knew anything about those two services. i don't know if you use it at all. i've never really used it in the last, i'd say, ten years.

Craig: yeah. i've, used it a little bit. i yeah. i know. i'm just quickly going through my notes to looking for those specific, things, and i don't have notes on them. let's see. but, but i use google ads, and and, i go in there and use, like, several of the google tools. so we'll have like, any of these things. you know? it's a question of what's going behind the scenes. like, at some point, these big corporations turn from, hey. this is the greatest tool ever to, hey. they're doing the various things in the background. google's doing it. facebook's doing it yeah. about, you know, cranking up the cost on certain keywords in the background automatically, faking competition sometimes, doing these things, and that becomes an issue. the problem is when you say, hey. you're tying your tools together. well, what does that mean? i am facebook or i am google, and i'm building tools to support my ad tool. of course, i'm tying them together. what, like, what did people expect from that?

Jon: yeah. the question become yeah. go ahead. go ahead.

Craig: the question is, when does your, you know, building a better product become anti competitive?

Jon: true. i think it becomes anti competitive when you, undertake sly, secretive kind of strategies to, artificially inflate things, to artificially like, just let your tools run. that's fine if you combine them, but don't do things that are sly. like, that's i get i get that they're pushing the envelope. you're seeing how far they can push things, but, like, that's why we're in this boat. like, you're doing things that are not kosher. i don't know the other word for it. you know what i mean? and, again, unproven. unproven, though.

Craig: the competition bureau is concerned that google stranglehold on the digital advertising is stifling competition and making it tough for canadian businesses to thrive. so it's obviously a pay to play market. social media and other things aren't given the clicks that they used to for a number of reasons. and if people wanna drive traffic to the site, their advertising seems to be one of the only ways of options they're going with. so this isn't just a story about big tech and regulatory bodies. it's about every small business across the great white north that relies on getting their messages out to potential customers. yeah. think of google as a much dreaded giant make a sale button that every business wants to press. so now let's paint a clearer picture. google controls a massive chunk of the digital ad market. like, if google were a pizza, it would be the whole pie and not just, you know, a satisfying piece. you know? the rest of the business would be the crumbs falling off except for maybe facebook. the competition bureaus lawsuit could force google to change its advertising practice. imagine if they could share the pizza with everyone else saying, alright. you know, you have to offer up your advertising or the bidding or whatever to these other competitions. so all of a sudden, when you go into google for ad, do you see all these other, services that could bid for your things as well? that would be very interesting. so if they end up losing this case, canadian business may find it easy to mark easier to market themselves through alternative channels. we could even see the rise of new local advertising, platforms. it's like, farmer's market sprouting up, next to a big corporate chain store. yeah. so yeah.

Jon: go ahead. yeah. yeah. so, google's responded to this, and it's actual bullshit bull bs. sorry. so they claimed that the competition in online advertising is intense and that advertisers and publishers have numerous options available. and dan taylor, who's google's vice president of global ads, he stated that the lawsuit overlooks the competitive landscape where various players buy for market share. so, obviously, google is gonna contest this in court. but, again, that's those are kinda like boilerplate kind of responses. right?

Craig: yeah. it seems typical response. right? there's plenty of things. you can go elsewhere. you can do but can you really?

Jon: yeah.

Craig: you know? and soon, i assume, because it looks like chat, gtp, and other people are gonna start putting advertising into their search products, which, you know, great. here we go again. that becomes competition. yeah. but we're just at the, you know, the cusp of that. so the amount of people using that technology is probably less than one percent.

Jon: yeah. it's funny though because, like, it seemed like for a while there, companies were trying to get away from having to show ads, from having to serve up ads, like, especially the streaming services. right? and okay. you laugh because everyone is going back to advertising. so advertising is not going away anytime soon. this is so this is a relevant case that is going to impact, future, future advertising technology and all that sort of stuff. so if it's successful, i think, like, you could see, new opportunities for alternative ad tech solutions. and, like, it could just be a more competitive environment. but i'm i can't speak to that enough that, to know what the environment actually looks like. this is one of those sectors that, i've never really played in. i did years ago, for a website that i built, work messing around with adwords, but it was really straightforward. and i was using google, but i can't really speak to how it is, how the landscape is now. this is ten years later. right? so

Craig: yeah. so there's more at stake here. the lawsuit triggers a broader discussion about data privacy and user consent. with everything shifting online, consumers are starting to demand transparency in how their data is used, like asking what's actually in mystery meat at the school cafeteria. a win for the competition bureau could lead to stricter regulation that leads companies to think twice before using data in sneaky ways. it's a potential win where fair play in advertising goes hand in hand with consumer protection. so that's just one thing we haven't really talked about is the data privacy of this. reactions from canadian business are already stirring the pot. some are gearing up to pivot towards competitive strategies, thinking of diversifying their advertising efforts. as the canadian digital marketing alliance puts it, this could be an opportunity for businesses to explore new horizons or maybe just new online platforms that aren't google themselves. so looking ahead, canada is following in the footsteps of other regions that have challenged might of the tech giants. europe has led, you know, the charge, as you obviously point out, with their own stringent regulations, and the us is following suit. canada's actions could go a major shift towards stricter digital regulations, making clear no one is above the law, even multibillion dollar corporation. so as we watch how this drama unfolds in the courtroom, we invite all entrepreneurs, marketers, and googlers out there to ask yourself, if google's ad empire crumbles, how will you adapt your strategy to thrive in a potential new advertising landscape? will you call on social media platforms or dive deep into seo to find your audience using these alternatives like, chat gtp and other ai strategies. share your thoughts with us. after all, in the world of tech, the only constant is change.