Google Faces Two New Antitrust Challenges From India, Canada

Google is facing two new regulatory hurdles as India's competition watchdog and Canada's Competition Bureau ordered a probe into the policies of the tech giant.

In India, WinZO, an online gaming platform, filed a complaint against Google, calling it as discriminatory after its offering of real-money games was rejected by the Alphabet-owned company, Reuters reported.

The new probe is an addition to the already existing challenges of Google with India's regulatory agency. The company was penalized twice for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the market under the Android operating system.

The issue with WinZo started when it filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2022. WinZO said its exclusion by Google from its Play Store as unfair since some of its competitors such as fantasy sports and the card game Rummy were accepted by the platform, The Register reported.

The updated policy of the search giant allowed real-money games for fantasy sports and rummy. WinZO however faced rejection since it also offered games in other categories that were not within the acceptable ones by Google. Some of these games include car racing, puzzles and carrom.

The order of the CCI zeroed in on an alleged preferential treatment by Google towards some developers, thereby discriminating against others.

"By granting preferential treatment to select app categories, Google effectively creates a two-tier market where some developers are accorded superior access and visibility while others are discriminated against and thus, left with a competitive disadvantage," the order stated.

The investigation is still ongoing but it is expected to be completed by a CCI official in 60 days.

The antitrust regulator of India has been actively pursuing any perceived violation of the Big Tech.

It recently rejected Apple's request to pause a report from an investigation dating back to 2021, which concluded the company had violated competition laws through its practices in the country.

Meanwhile, the Competition Bureau in Canada also taking legal action against Google for anti-competitive conduct in online advertising technology services in Canada. This case is about online web advertising, which consists of ads shown to users when they visit websites.

The Bureau's investigation found that, in Canada, Google is the largest provider across the ad tech stack for web advertising and has abused its dominant position through conduct intended to ensure that it would maintain and entrench its market power.

Google's conduct locks market participants into using its own ad tech tools, prevents rivals from being able to compete on the merits of their offering, and otherwise distorts the competitive process.

The latest probes already adds to increased regulatory pressure on Google in U.S. where the Department of Justice (DOJ) forcing Google to sell the Chrome browser, and the possibility of selling the Android mobile operating system, to diversify Google search distribution points.

The department also proposed to impose restrictions on its Android operating system to prevent Google from using the software to favor its search engine. In addition, the DOJ seeks to prohibit Google from securing multibillion-dollar deals that make its search engine the default on devices like Apple's iPhone.