Australian Watchdog Sues Google Over Deceptive Search Ads

Jul 12, 2007 at 8:42am ET by Barry Schwartz

Watchdog takes Google to court from News.com reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Google to court for allegedly displaying misleading and deceptive sponsored results.

The commision says that in 2005, the Trading Post site ran had ads on Google for “Kloster Ford” and “Charlestown Toyota” that directed traffic to the Trading Post site. Kloster Ford and Charlestown Toyota are both competitors of the Trading Post. Allowing these links meant Google engaged in “misleading and deceptive conduct,” the commission says, in a statement.

The ACCC also states that Google has failed to “adequately distinguish sponsored links from ‘organic’ search results.”

Rob Shilkin, of Google Australia, said “Google Australia believes that these claims are without merit and we will defend against them vigorously.”

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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ONE COMMENT ON Australian Watchdog Sues Google Over Deceptive Search Ads

AussieWebmaster, July 13th, 2007 at 3:48 pm ET:

Got to love those Australians! There may be a lot of Aussie Black Hats – but the hats are so big you can pick them out in a crowd real easy.

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