Google wanted a lawsuit by American Airlines over the search engine’s advertising practices dismissed, but a federal judge denied the motion.
The latest challenge to Google over its competitive keyword bidding practices for AdWords will continue in the court system. American Airlines joined a growing list of companies that resent Google’s business model enough to sue them.
MediaPost cited the brief, two-sentence order by Judge John McBryde in Texas, which simply allows the case to continue forward.
Google tends to do well with these legal challenges. They successfully beat a suit by computer repair firm Rescuecom, and settled others filed by American Blinds and by Geico.
In the case of American Airlines, Google compared its AdWords practices to that of a pharmacy, which places its generic medications alongside branded ones like Advil. It’s just competition in the free market.
The airline thinks it’s more like putting generic ibuprofen in Advil boxes and mixing them in with the boxes containing branded Advil.
It’s enough to give one a headache, but the courts are going to let it go forward. The judge will probably need an Advil himself at some point.
