Turns Out, No, You Can't Sue Google For Putting Ads You Don't Like Near Your Listing
from the in-case-you-were-wondering dept
Last week we had the story of a Dutch dating site that was suing Google because they didn't like the ads it showed when people searched on their name. The company runs a "farm dating" site, and some of the ads were for "sex sites." The dating site worried it hurt their reputation. If allowed, it seemed like this would open up a huge host of problems as plenty of companies would try to sue Google over the ads it showed near their listings. It seems that a judge agreed, noting that the words "farm" and "date" were way too generic for the site to have any control over them. At least that gets this case out of court, but it really punts on the bigger issue. If the site did have a less generic name, would they have the right to control what kind of ads show up near their listing in the search engine? That would still create a ton of problems, giving an opening to misuse trademarks for anti-competitive purposes, rather than for consumer protection.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Wouldn't surprise me if there were more suits like this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Begging of the End
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Begging of the End
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Googl Ads
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think we're ignoring the real point:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think we're ignoring the real point:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I got kicked by adwords
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Can I sue Google for an ad that insult my religion
regards,
toufic
[ link to this | view in chronology ]