Canadian Competition Bureau Ends Investigation of Google

On April 19, 2016, the Canada’s Commissioner of Competition (Commissioner) announced that an investigation by the Competition Bureau (Bureau) into Google Inc (Google) for abuse of dominance contrary to the Competition Act had been discontinued.  The investigation, commenced in 2013, centred on Google’s online search, search advertising, and display advertising services in Canada.

The Bureau’s announcement describes its conclusion that Google employed anti-competitive terms and conditions for its AdWords Application Programming Interface (API) intended to lessen competition from rival search engines.  In particular, the terms and conditions imposed input and copying restrictions that prevented a company from easily transferring information between an advertising campaign on Google and an advertising campaign on a competing platform.  Google has since removed these clauses and made a commitment not to reintroduce them in Canada (or any other API clauses that may have the same effect) for a period of five years.

The Bureau concluded there was inadequate evidence to support other allegations of other anti-competitive conduct that were the subject of this investigation.  These allegations included that Google manipulated search results so that Google-related links appeared higher in presentation to users, and that Google gave preferential treatment to its own services (e.g. Google Maps) compared to competitors on Google’s search engine results page.