Canada’s Competition Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google for allegedly using anti-competitive practices while selling its online advertising services in the country. 

The antitrust watchdog filed its case yesterday to the Competition Tribunal, and is seeking an order that would require Google to sell off two of its ad-tech tools, pay penalties worth up to 3% of the platform’s global gross revenues, and prohibit the company from continuing to engage in anti-competitive practices. Google has 45 days to file its response. 

The case follows an extensive investigation that found that Google is leveraging its position as the largest ad-tech provider in Canada by locking companies into using its online advertising tools, inflating costs and actively preventing rivals from competing in the marketplace. The Competition Bureau received court-ordered permission to look into Google’s ad practices in 2021, and its inquiry has spanned roughly three years. It estimates that Google controls 90% of all ad servers and 70% of advertiser networks operating in Canada. 

Meanwhile, the US Justice Department is also looking to break up Google’s monopoly in online search engines, and has proposed that the company sell its Chrome browser, end its exclusive partnerships with Apple, and share all of the data it gathers from users with competitors. The trial on this motion is scheduled for April.