Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google is facing an antitrust lawsuit in Canada.
What Happened: As per a statement issued on Thursday, Canada’s Competition Bureau is taking legal action against Google for alleged anti-competitive behavior in online advertising.
The Bureau has lodged an application with the Competition Tribunal, seeking an order that mandates Google to sell two of its ad tech tools.
It is also seeking a penalty to encourage compliance with Canada’s competition laws.
In response to the complaint, Google told Reuters that it “ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice.”
Why It Matters: This lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar case in the U.S., where the Justice Department tried to prove Google’s monopolization of markets for publisher ad servers and advertiser ad networks.
Google has defended its business decisions and argued that the online advertising market is robust and competitive.
Earlier in the month, the U.S. Department of Justice also proposed a breakup of Google to curb its search engine dominance.
Google described the proposed remedies as “staggering” and analysts referred to the sweeping remedies as a “kitchen sink moment.”
Price Action: On Wednesday, Alphabet’s Class A shares ended the regular session 0.06% higher at $169.23 and the company’s Class C shares rose 0.1% higher at $170.82, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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