Unifor, the union representing the largest group of news and media workers in Canada, has requested the Competition Bureau provide an update into a more than year-long investigation of Google’s control over the online ad industry.

In October 2021, the Competition Bureau obtained a court order for a civil investigation into whether Google’s display advertising business was harming competition in Canada.

In a letter signed by Unifor national president Lana Payne, the union requested an update on the investigation, as well as encouraged Commissioner Matthew Boswell to quickly move to a decision.

The investigation is relevant to Unifor, as it represents 12,000 journalists and media workers in television, newspapers, magazines, news websites and film production. The letter points out that, despite the fact that online advertising has grown to surpass traditional forms of advertising, media outlets the generate revenue from advertising have nonetheless struggled as 90% of spending goes to Google, Meta and Amazon.

The letter also pointed to other investigations into Google’s ad business, such as a lawsuit from the U.S. federal government in January, or a 2022 European Union decision to uphold a fine against the company.

“Every day that Google is allowed to monopolize ad revenue, more harm is inflicted on the Canadian news industry, which has a negative impact on democracy as a whole,” Payne said in a statement. “This is an important issue and one that our union and media workers have our eyes on. We eagerly anticipate the results of the Competition Bureau’s work.”

The union said that since the Bureau’s investigation began, the “crisis” in news media has worsened, with further layoffs and shuttering of local outlets in response to dips in ad revenue. Between 2008 and 2022, 468 local news operations ended operations. In recent months, news organizations including Postmedia, Global News and TVA have announced new rounds of layoffs in response to languishing revenues.

“The list of dead newspapers reads like a roll call of regional and small-town Canada,” said Randy Kitt, Unifor’s media director. “Notice of restructuring is sadly something media workers face on regular basis. News outlets are closing, consolidating and downsizing. We need Google to pay its fair share to save local news.”

Last year, the Online News Act was introduced to parliament in an attempt to force “digital giants” like Google and Facebook to negotiate with news outlets for a more fair share of ad revenue generated from news content in Canada. However, attempting to directly regulate Google and Facebook’s ad business would likely require anti-trust measures outside of Canada’s sole jurisdiction, requiring the collaboration of several governments. Instead, the bill targets companies that share news content with Canadians on their own platforms, though this has left the option of companies escaping the scope of the regulations, leading to both Google and Meta saying they may remove news from their platforms, should the bill be passed.

A spokesperson for the Bureau confirmed to MiC it had received Unifor’s request, but beyond confirming that the investigation was still ongoing, said that further details were confidential.

“While the Bureau endeavours to complete its investigations as expeditiously as possible, we must conduct a thorough and complete examination of the facts before concluding whether the Competition Act has been contravened,” the spokesperson said. “As the steps the Bureau takes during an investigation depend on the facts of each case, it would be inappropriate to speculate as to when the Bureau might reach any conclusions.”