Google is reportedly arguing that it should not be made to pay about $370,000 in legal fees and other costs the Competition Commissioner is seeking. This comes after the tech giant lost a constitutional challenge in Canada. According to a report in Western Investor, the battle over legal fees comes a few weeks after the Competition Tribunal dismissed a constitutional challenge that formed part of a broader case where Google has been accused by the bureau of causing harm through an allegedly outsized hold on the online advertising world. Now, having lost the challenge, Google wants to avoid paying any fees or at least, see them greatly reduced.
In a recent filing made with the Competition Tribunal, Google said that it should be spared from paying the money because of the public interest element of this case. Google argued that the fee is so big that it would violate the company’s constitutional rights, a stand that the bureau disputes.
In its submission, Google has pointed to a previous tribunal ruling which waived costs for credit card company Visa because it advanced a “novel” argument.
“Without parties like Google who are willing to bring novel challenges, ‘[g]aps in our law and policy will not be identified or remedied,'” Google said. Google cited in part the ruling Visa’s company’s case. If the tribunal decides Google should have to pay the fees, the company says they should be “significantly reduced” because of its public interest argument and acting commissioner Jeanne Pratt’s failure to prevail on one of her primary arguments.
Google also said that any fees should be lower than those featured in other cases “to strike a fair and reasonable balance between compensating a successful party and not unduly burdening an unsuccessful party.”
Competition Bureau to Google: You should pay the fees
On their part, the Competition Bureau’s lawyers claimed in submission that Google should have to pay $370,096. 88 in fees for the watchdog’s legal representation, experts, transcripts and printing because they are “reasonable, necessary and justified. ” Google’s motion alone totalled more than 10,000 pages, included 29 volumes with four affidavits and two expert reports, the bureau said. The Commissioner’s motion was made up of 11 volumes with a single affidavit and expert report. The motion took five cross-examinations, and a hearing spanned 3 1/2 days.
Judge Andrew Little took the bureau’s side, ruling that the fine the company could face is “hypothetical at best” but “may be necessary to deter non-compliance.”
In this case, Google’s failed challenge took aim at a $91 billion penalty that the company would have to pay if the tribunal eventually sides with the Competition Bureau, which alleges that the tech firm abused its dominant position in online advertising.
The Competition Bureau says in its own submission that Google should have to pay because “responding to the motion was also substantially more work for the commissioner than a motion of average or usual complexity.”
As for Google’s take that the fees should be reduced because one of the commissioner’s arguments didn’t sway even little, the bureau’s lawyers said, “a successful party should not be penalized simply because not all the points advanced by that party have found favour with the court.”
The bureau under Pratt’s predecessor Matthew Boswell launched its broader fight against Google in November. A lawsuit Boswell filed claimed Google unlawfully tied together its ad tech tools — DoubleClick for Publishers, AdX, Display & Video 360 and Google Ad — to maintain its market dominance and lessen competition.
In the case Google lost, the search giant maintained that ad buyers have plenty of choice despite the hold it has on the market.
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