Google wins an Aussie advertising case

INTERNET SEARCH DOMINATOR Google has won a court case in Australia over its placement of sponsored links.

The company won the court case against Australia's competition regulator and argued successfully that its sponsored links are not misleading to consumers. The regulator had suggested that the sponsored links are not clearly different from usual search results, which presumably caused confusion in Australia.

Google managed to convince the regulator otherwise and Federal Court judge Antony Nicholas ruled that it has not breached local consumer law, according to a report at the Economic Times.

"I am not satisfied that Google contravened (trade practices laws) by failing to sufficiently distinguish advertisements from organic search results on its search results pages," said Nicholas, as quoted in the Economic Times, since he found that most consumers could tell the difference between a sponsored link and a search result.

Google helped clarify the difference when it changed the description of the adverts to "ads" from "sponsored links" and made advertisers make clear what they were selling.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission welcomed the ruling, but perhaps more so, the work that Google did to clear up any confusion over its adverts.

"This case is important in relation to clarifying advertising practices in the internet age," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

"All businesses involved in placing advertisements on search engines must take care not to mislead or deceive consumers."

This will take the heat off Google in Australia, but the firm is becoming increasingly well versed in making a stand in court. As the AAAC reminds us, Google is facing increasing scrutiny over competition and antitrust issues. µ