Google scores an antitrust win in Canada (while European charges still loom)

Google, the world’s largest search engine, is facing antitrust pressure in several parts of the world. But it is managing to beat back a few of these. On April 19, Canada’s competition bureau announced it has closed its investigation into Google for potentially exploiting its dominance in search and advertising. The agency opened the case in 2013 and, three years later, concluded that Google’s practices don’t exclude Canadian rivals. From the findings: "Although Google frequently makes changes to the algorithm it uses to rank search results, evidence obtained over the course of the investigation indicates that Google’s changes are generally made to improve user experiences."

With the ruling, Google is sidestepping any forced changes to its services that would hit its most profitable businesses. Canada’s market is small, but not insignificant. But it’s mostly a notch for Google’s policy team. And a timely one. The European Union, which is currently fighting Google around its comparative shopping product, is expected to land its other charge — the one on Google’s practice of bundling services with Android — as early as April 20. The EU is also weighing additional cases against Google for things like its ad serving. The Canadian agency noted that it consulted with EU officials in its decision.