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Google Accused of Misleading Web Users About Sponsored Links
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched an action in Australia’s Federal Court against Google Inc., Google Ireland Ltd., Google Australia Pty Ltd. and a private classified magazine, “Trading Post”.
The ACCC alleges that Google’s failure to differentiate between paid advertisements and “organic” results generated by Google’s search engine misidentifies sponsored links and has resulted in web users being misled. Central to the ACCC’s accusation is an argument that web users mistakenly believe that Google’s search results are listed in order of relevance to the user’s query since there is no mention that sponsored hyperlinks may be embedded in such results.
The ACCC has pointed to a specific incident in 2005 when Google’s search engine listed two car dealerships from the New South Wales city of Newcastle as sponsored links but they actually lead to Trading Post’s website, which is a rival of the two car dealerships.
Analysts have theorized that the outcome of the Australian lawsuit will have a major impact on the global IT industry.
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