Eric Goldman reports that Google has won the case brought against them by KinderStart over Google downgrading their rankings.
The case was first filed before March of last year and then KinderStart amended the complaint in September.
The bottom line is that Judge Fogel dismissed the “complaint without leave to amend” and also granted Google sanctions for the legal fees Google accrued due to this case.
Matt Cutts notes he gave a declaration in the case, and Reuters has some more details.
Related Topics: Google: Legal | Legal: General
It was to be expected, as pretty much everyone is saying. Although Google’s results are not purely algorithmic (the fact of banning or penalizing sites through a manual process establishes that), they remain nonetheless an expression of opinion. It’s hard to get around that in a legal venue.
Right. I think the real lesson of this case is that legal sanction were imposed on KinderStart’s lawyer. That’s rare, and it’s a heavy slam.
It’s basically the court saying the lawyers was way out of bounds. From a quick read, the judge seemed to dislike the pay-for-placement and political/religious discrimination charges.