Canada’s Competition Bureau is suing Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) for alleged anti-competitive practices related to online advertising.
The Ottawa-based antitrust watchdog alleges in its lawsuit that Alphabet illegally links two advertising tools to maintain market supremacy and uses its dominant position to distort advertising auctions and prefer its own tools over competitors.
The Competition Bureau has filed suit with the Competition Tribunal, a court-like independent body, and is seeking to force Alphabet to sell two of its advertising tools.
In a statement, Alphabet said the lawsuit in Canada “ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice.”
The company added that it “looks forward to making our case in court.”
The case brought by the Competition Tribunal focuses on online advertisements, specifically the ads shown to users while visiting various websites.
The Competition Bureau claims that its investigation found that Alphabet “abused its dominant position” in Canada to squeeze out smaller competitors in the online ad market.
The federal agency is also seeking to force Alphabet to pay a fine of as much as 3% of the company’s global revenue to ensure “compliance” with Canada’s competition laws.
Google has 45 days to file its response to the lawsuit.
The case in Canada comes a week after the U.S. Justice Department demanded that Alphabet sell its Chrome internet browser to stop its monopoly in online search.
The stock of Alphabet has increased 22% this year and currently trades at $169.23 U.S. per share.
