Canadian government regulators will soon open an investigation into claims that Google might be unfairly taking advantage of its status as the dominant search engine in order to increase online advertising prices and keep competition down. A filing was made in Ottawa federal court at the start of the week by the Canadian Competition Bureau stating that it believes Google might be in violation of Canada’s antitrust law.

The commission stated that they have reason to think that Google is abusing its position as top search engine online and are looking to receive a court order that will compel the Canadian subsidiary of Google to give internal company records to antitrust investigators.

The regulators also think that Google is giving its own services higher search rankings over other services online in an effort to keep rivals from succeeding. They also want to know if Google’s partnerships with other device manufacturers and websites are making it too difficult for rivals to compete against them.

"We will work co-operatively with the Competition Bureau to answer any questions they may have," said Google spokeswoman Leslie Church. The Mountain View, Calif., company has consistently defended its search rankings as a form or free speech and denied doing anything to squash competition.

Canada is not the first country to raise antitrust concerns as other countries have investigated the massive search engine brand as well. European regulators are still investigating the company and the US FTC closed their antitrust investigation earlier in 2013.

On The Web:
Competition regulator wonders: Is Google breaking Canadian laws?
http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/competition-regulator-wonders-is-google-breaking-canadian-laws-1.1591973