A case against Google’s subsidiaries in Australia and Ireland will be refiled against Google’s US operations instead.
Aussie Watchdog Growls At Google US
Competitor use of trademarks in Google’s advertising has the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission upset with both Google and Trading Post, a classifieds company owned by a division of the Telstra telecom.
When the ACCC first filed against Google’s Irish and Australian operations, the presiding judge demanded the watchdog rewrite its “incomprehensible” and “somewhat repetitious” court documents, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Those have been refocused, with the regulator still claiming Google does not clearly distinguish between paid and organic search results. Google has denied this, and pointed out how it does so with background shading and labeling of ads.
The part of the case concerning use of competitive trademarks could have greater impact. ACCC cited ads placed by Trading Post that display the names of car dealerships, but link back to Trading Post instead.
In the US, Google allows the use of competitive keywords to trigger advertising. One could argue that the company was able to make billionaires of its founders and insiders with the assistance of this practice.
Google’s lawyers have continued to complain about the ACCC’s rewritten claims. They have their work cut out for them. A finding against Google’s practice of competitive keyword use in AdWords could ber a massive hit to its ad revenue stream.
