Australia lwa: Google not liable for ads next to search results

Google is not responsible for the ads that are shown alongside search results, the Australian supreme court ruled. This brings an end to a six-year-long lawsuit over the question of whether Google consumer has been deceived.

All five judges in the case agreed that Google is not liable for the ads, writes Reuters. This rejects the Supreme court the judgment of a lower court that Google indeed was responsible for the ads and that the search giant the placement of misleading ads should avoid.

The case was filed by an Australian government agency that protects the interests of consumers. The organisation, the ACCC, denounced the fact that, when a visitor searched on “Honda”, text-ads were shown to a competitor, CarSales. Therefore, it seemed according to the ACCC like CarSales to Honda, while it is not. According to the organization, that amounts to deception.

The Supreme court did not agree. According to the court, Google has sponsored links not posted and the company is not responsible for the messages in the ads. Google users need to understand that the message in the ads of the advertiser, and not Google, the court ruled. Google welcomed the decision. The case ran since 2007.