Mark Warner Was Featured in The Wall Street Journal Talking About the CRTC’s Enforcement Fee Levy on Google and Risks of U.S. Retaliation

Mark Warner was featured in the Wall Street Journal talking about the risks of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s decision slap a levy on Google to help finance enforcement costs related to Canada’s online-news law in light of Trump’s threatened tariff and tax responses against discriminatory digital taxes. (February 26, 2025) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels. Mark advised on harmful tax competition issues and worked on other trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate where he participated in the negotiations of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition Policy and the Working Group on Trade and Investment.

As Legal Director for the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation, Mr. Warner led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, the $205 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund focused, in part, on the digital media and information and communications technology sectors. As Legal Director of MEDT, Mark also provided strategic legal advice with respect to the Ontario’s economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to leading ICT and digital media companies. Mark’s experience with online technologies and e-commerce includes: participating in OECD-wide policy work on laws and regulations affecting e-commerce, acting as Chair, ICC Competition Commission Working Party on E-Commerce and Competition Policy. Mark also chaired an Insight Research Canadian Sharing Economy Symposium in Toronto in 2015.

As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, Mark led Ontario’s legal team for the negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement, advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters.

Mark is a past Chair of the International and Economics Committees of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law as well as a member of the Section’s Task Forces on Competition Policy and NAFTA and Antitrust in the Global Economy. In addition to being a lawyer, Mr. Warner has a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.