This week on The Stack: Ad Tech's Latest Anti-Competition Antics; Brands Seek to Change Agency Remuneration; Today’s MadTech Daily 

Anti-competition has been top of the news agenda again. In a significant move against Google, Canada will be joining the US DOJ in taking Google to court over its anticompetitive practices in ad tech. Canada’s Competition Bureau alleges that Google illegally tied together its advertising tools to dominate the ad ecosystem. 

This week also saw an update regarding the FTC’s antitrust investigation into Microsoft. Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Rima Alaily, has asked the FTC Inspector General to investigate whether FTC management improperly leaked confidential information about the investigation in violation of the agency’s ethics rules. 

Looking at the agency world, the industry can expect a shakeup in the coming years. According to a study by the World Federation of Advertisers and MediaSense, three quarters of multinational brands want to change their agency remuneration model within the next three years. 

In the nearer future, Dentsu’s latest ad spend forecast predicts global ad spend to increase by 6.8% this year. Particularly strong growth is expected for the UK, while the EMEA and APAC regions can expect slightly slower acceleration.