Court orders Google to turn over documents to Competition Bureau

The Federal Court has ordered Alphabet Inc.'s Google to turn over a number of records to the Competition Bureau after the regulator requested the documents as part of its investigation into what it suspects are anti-competitive practices involving the sale of advertising on YouTube. According to an application to the Federal Court filed last week, the bureau is looking into whether or not Google is “leveraging its market power in the supply of in-stream video advertising space into adjacent advertising technology markets.” As per the order issued Friday, Google must turn over to the Competition Bureau records dating from Jan. 1, 2015 that are "sufficient to show how the company has described the programmatic advertising supply chain, including the interrelationship between the company’s advertising technology products and non-Google advertising technology products, as well as the process of programmatically purchasing an ad (e.g., the process of how an advertiser’s ad gets to a publisher) within employee training materials." The court has also ordered the disclosure of information regarding pricing policies, incentive programs offered to advertisers, the company's analysis of the "conditions and state of competition… any contemplated or actual competitive response or activities of the company in relation to potential or actual competitors," as well as a broad swath of information about Google's DV360 ad purchasing technology. In last week's filings with the court, the Competition Bureau said that it has been told by market participants that Google's move in 2017 to limit the use of cookies and ‘pixels’ on YouTube -- which the Bureau defines as “tools advertisers use to measure the performance of their ad campaigns and to optimize across platforms and ad formats” -- “has hindered advertisers’ ability to identify and track users across the web and to obtain measurement for their ad campaign when using” anything other than Google’s own ad purchasing technology, known as DV360. The court further ordered Google to turn over records "prepared or received by a senior officer relating to any policies, strategies, or instructions, prohibiting, warning, advising against, or respecting the use of terms related to antitrust," including the terms "cutting off the air supply," bindle, tie, crush, kill, hurt, block, and "market power." According to a Friday statement from the Competition Bureau, the agency requested the information in order to determine whether Google's advertising practices are "impeding the success of competitors; and resulting in higher prices, reducing choice and hindering innovation for advertising technology (ad tech) services, and harming advertisers, publishers and consumers." — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Court orders Google to turn over documents to Competition Bureau

News | October 22, 2021

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Court orders Google to turn over documents to Competition Bureau

News | October 22, 2021

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