5 ms·

Canada Competition Bureau sues Google for anti-competitive conduct in online ads

89 points by _aavaa_ 2y ago

_aavaa_ 2y ago
Title reordered slightly to fit
duringmath 2y ago
The sharks are circling and by "sharks" I mean the same people who lobby the government for link taxes and publish puff pieces on politicians who go after their business rivals.
- jfil 2y ago
  I just want my government to enforce a law that's already on the books, which Google has been violating for ~10 years now.
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
Competition Bureau taking a shot at this seems like they just copy stuff from lawsuits in the U.S. Do they really understand or use terms like "ad tech stack"? I wouldn't trust them to know what they're talking about ... or that their solution of "selling off two of its tools" helps the situation. What competitors are waiting in the wings that aren't also going to employ the same practices?
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  I trust they can identify a monopoly when one exists.
  - wbl 2y ago
    How is that working with Rogers?
    - SECProto 2y ago
      What monopoly does Rogers have? They've been an option for various telecom offerings in places i've lived throughout canada, but I've never chosen them due to inferior product. Which monopoly do they have?
      - wubrr 2y ago
        It's not exactly a monopoly, but telco, banking, grocery, etc. are very obvious oligopolies in Canada. Oligopolies that have been growing ever more dominant, and supported/protected every step of the way by the government. Claiming otherwise is just dishonest.
        SECProto 2y ago
        > Claiming otherwise is just dishonest. I didnt claim otherwise. I asked a poster what area they thought Rogers had a monopoly in. Telco sector has gotten quite a bit better in the last few years, but there are certainly still improvements needed.
        jamincan 2y ago
        How is competition better? We have Bell, Rogers, and Telus and then Quebecor which is regional and much smaller but at least within an order of magnitude of the other telcos in size. Shaw was bought out by Rogers, so it seems strictly worse than it used to be.
        SECProto 2y ago
        > How is competition better? Here's a CRTC article on how they're improving competition (regulation requiring the big companies to provide wholesale access to their networks) https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/indus.htm https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/indus.htm Here's a government press release from earlier in 2024 noting an 18% decrease over a one year period https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2024/04/prices-for-telecom-services-continue-to-decline.html https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-develop... And if you want an anecdote, for about a decade I used to have to pay $60 monthly minimum to get any useful amount of data. Over the last 2-3 years, that dropped to 55, 50, 45, and now I pay $34/month for 20gb of data with free roaming in the US. The government's statistics seem borne out by my experience.
  - wubrr 2y ago
    Yeah, they can identify one, then gift it taxpayer money and adopt a bunch of laws to prevent competition.
jszymborski 2y ago
Great, I fully support this. However, this should be way at the bottom of our priority list. Canadian Telecom, Banks, and News Media should all be wayyy higher on the priority list. The Bank of Canada even said that one of the largest contributers to Canada's low productivity is the lack of competition present in so many of our industries.
- JacobThreeThree 2y ago
  Well said. Protectionism under the guise of regulation, similar to the EU.
  - tyre 2y ago
    Is it protectionism? What Canada-based google alternatives are there? On the other hand, inflated ad prices and deflated online revenue do hurt Canadian businesses selling online. I don’t read this action as pro-Canadian search but anti-abusing monopolization
    - JacobThreeThree 2y ago
      The same amount of alternatives as there has been in previous years. If this was such a big issue for Canadians, why didn't the Canadian government do anything in the past 16 years since the DoubleClick acquisition? What changed this year?
      - godzillabrennus 2y ago
        Trudeau is going to finally lose his job. Pierre is coming.
        b112 2y ago
        Actions such as these start years ahead of time.
- wubrr 2y ago
goku12 2y ago
These worldwide anti-competitive lawsuit and penalty news are getting far too frequent that it makes me wonder if any of it is working at all. Meanwhile, there are some talks about some big impactful interventions. But again, they have remained just that - talks. Am I paranoid to think that these are just diversions with no real consequences? If not, why are we not seeing any improvement on the ground?
- jfil 2y ago
  The "corrective action" from all these lawsuits have not been decided on or have not been put into place, that's why you're not seeing results yet. The legal system works exceptionally slowly (while Google has already made its money before the regulators woke up).
kdhusakdjhsadkj 2y ago
[dead]
metalman 2y ago
Next they can sue the Nova Scotia government for abandoning its responsibility to provide maps of Nova Scotia, and now only prints a tourist map that has a disclaimer on it stating that any pronblems or inconsistancys, should be taken up with google. As a non google user I am prevented from obataining maps for business and pleasure. And a footnote to history is that the term, "on the map" is purely historical, as there are many busy streets, not on any map.Cartography is no longer an actual proffesion ,including surveying, we are on the cusp of loosing , what are foundation skills required to run a civilisation, with no debate, a fait complete.
chucke1992 2y ago
I think Google will be broken up during the next couple of years.
kittikitti 2y ago
This is great and I'm hoping they take give Google the Guillotine treatment.

89 points by _aavaa_ 2y ago

Title reordered slightly to fit

The sharks are circling and by "sharks" I mean the same people who lobby the government for link taxes and publish puff pieces on politicians who go after their business rivals.

jfil 2y ago
I just want my government to enforce a law that's already on the books, which Google has been violating for ~10 years now.

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

Competition Bureau taking a shot at this seems like they just copy stuff from lawsuits in the U.S. Do they really understand or use terms like "ad tech stack"? I wouldn't trust them to know what they're talking about ... or that their solution of "selling off two of its tools" helps the situation. What competitors are waiting in the wings that aren't also going to employ the same practices?

HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
I trust they can identify a monopoly when one exists.
- wbl 2y ago
  How is that working with Rogers?
  - SECProto 2y ago
    What monopoly does Rogers have? They've been an option for various telecom offerings in places i've lived throughout canada, but I've never chosen them due to inferior product. Which monopoly do they have?
    - wubrr 2y ago
      It's not exactly a monopoly, but telco, banking, grocery, etc. are very obvious oligopolies in Canada. Oligopolies that have been growing ever more dominant, and supported/protected every step of the way by the government. Claiming otherwise is just dishonest.
      - SECProto 2y ago
        > Claiming otherwise is just dishonest. I didnt claim otherwise. I asked a poster what area they thought Rogers had a monopoly in. Telco sector has gotten quite a bit better in the last few years, but there are certainly still improvements needed.
        jamincan 2y ago
        How is competition better? We have Bell, Rogers, and Telus and then Quebecor which is regional and much smaller but at least within an order of magnitude of the other telcos in size. Shaw was bought out by Rogers, so it seems strictly worse than it used to be.
        SECProto 2y ago
        > How is competition better? Here's a CRTC article on how they're improving competition (regulation requiring the big companies to provide wholesale access to their networks) https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/indus.htm https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/indus.htm Here's a government press release from earlier in 2024 noting an 18% decrease over a one year period https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2024/04/prices-for-telecom-services-continue-to-decline.html https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-develop... And if you want an anecdote, for about a decade I used to have to pay $60 monthly minimum to get any useful amount of data. Over the last 2-3 years, that dropped to 55, 50, 45, and now I pay $34/month for 20gb of data with free roaming in the US. The government's statistics seem borne out by my experience.
- wubrr 2y ago
  Yeah, they can identify one, then gift it taxpayer money and adopt a bunch of laws to prevent competition.

jszymborski 2y ago

Great, I fully support this. However, this should be way at the bottom of our priority list. Canadian Telecom, Banks, and News Media should all be wayyy higher on the priority list. The Bank of Canada even said that one of the largest contributers to Canada's low productivity is the lack of competition present in so many of our industries.

JacobThreeThree 2y ago
Well said. Protectionism under the guise of regulation, similar to the EU.
- tyre 2y ago
  Is it protectionism? What Canada-based google alternatives are there? On the other hand, inflated ad prices and deflated online revenue do hurt Canadian businesses selling online. I don’t read this action as pro-Canadian search but anti-abusing monopolization
  - JacobThreeThree 2y ago
    The same amount of alternatives as there has been in previous years. If this was such a big issue for Canadians, why didn't the Canadian government do anything in the past 16 years since the DoubleClick acquisition? What changed this year?
    - godzillabrennus 2y ago
      Trudeau is going to finally lose his job. Pierre is coming.
      - b112 2y ago
        Actions such as these start years ahead of time.
wubrr 2y ago

goku12 2y ago

These worldwide anti-competitive lawsuit and penalty news are getting far too frequent that it makes me wonder if any of it is working at all. Meanwhile, there are some talks about some big impactful interventions. But again, they have remained just that - talks. Am I paranoid to think that these are just diversions with no real consequences? If not, why are we not seeing any improvement on the ground?

jfil 2y ago
The "corrective action" from all these lawsuits have not been decided on or have not been put into place, that's why you're not seeing results yet. The legal system works exceptionally slowly (while Google has already made its money before the regulators woke up).

kdhusakdjhsadkj 2y ago

[dead]

metalman 2y ago

Next they can sue the Nova Scotia government for abandoning its responsibility to provide maps of Nova Scotia, and now only prints a tourist map that has a disclaimer on it stating that any pronblems or inconsistancys, should be taken up with google. As a non google user I am prevented from obataining maps for business and pleasure. And a footnote to history is that the term, "on the map" is purely historical, as there are many busy streets, not on any map.Cartography is no longer an actual proffesion ,including surveying, we are on the cusp of loosing , what are foundation skills required to run a civilisation, with no debate, a fait complete.

chucke1992 2y ago

I think Google will be broken up during the next couple of years.

kittikitti 2y ago

This is great and I'm hoping they take give Google the Guillotine treatment.