Return Of Clickfraud Lawsuits?
from the it's-everywhere dept
The issue of "clickfraud" really seemed to die down for a while, but it appears to be back. As you may remember, about five years ago, a bunch of advertisers sued Google over clickfraud. Google took about a year to work out a settlement and we hadn't heard much about the issue for a while. But, of course, there are other web properties that have been building up a pretty big audience with their own advertising programs, and it looks like clickfraud has expanded well beyond Google. In recent weeks there have been articles about Facebook being targeted in a lawsuit over clickfraud, and Microsoft has gone in the other direction, being aggressive in suing a company it accuses of engaging in clickfraud.But perhaps more interesting is that, despite the settlement, Google is now a target again, from a locksmith who claims that the clickthroughs on his ads jumped up, and he didn't get any new leads from them. He insists the clicks must have come from a competitor, though it's not clear he has any additional proof. Of course, it's difficult to see Google getting pinned with any liability in such a case. It clearly tries to eliminate clickfraud, and as a service provider it shouldn't be held liable for actions by third party scammers.
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
Filed Under: clickfraud
Companies: facebook, google, microsoft
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Ben does good research, but that one's a bit overblown. That's a very specific situation, not about clickfraud in general.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Market
Actually Google is making a mint - suggests to me there is no real problem.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Market
AIG isn't bust so really they should be considered good lenders.
More specifically your ambiguous use of 'bad job' McDonalds makes crappy burgers, but every once in a while while I'm in a rush, i grab a couple cheeseburgers. Since i did buy the burgers does that mean McDonalds made good burgers, does that mean the did a 'good job'. Or does that mean my hunger v time ratio changed that day.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Market
I would say Richard is correct as long as there's enough competition in the market. I have no idea if that's the case. If google is so dominant that it's not practical for advertisers to go elsewhere, then there could be antitrust issues because we could not trust the market to sort it out. Otherwise yeah, customers can vote with their wallets.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Market
Hard numbers on the direct impact of PR efforts are notoriously hard to pin down. The exception is usually ads that greatly offend and tend to cause dramatic rise in sales/attention.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Your bank account is empty ...
INT BANK LOBBY MORNING
Teller: May I help you?
Customer: I'd like to withdraw $1000 from my account. Here's my ID and account info.
Teller: (after punching some buttons on a computer) I'm sorry, your account can't cover that amount.
Customer: (turning red) But I had $10,000 in the account yesterday. Where did it go?
Teller: (punches some more buttons) Our records show that you withdrew the money this morning.
Customer: Well, I didn't. How was the money paid out.
Teller: (click click) From an ATM.
Customer: But the ATM has a $300 limit.
Teller: (clickety click) Well it was from 33 ATM machines all over the state in a fifteen minute period. Did you give your PIN out?
Customer: Please get your manager.
Manager: I'm sorry but as a service provider we can't be liable for the actions of third party scammers.
Customer: You wan'a bet?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Business Customer
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hard to prove and even if you can, what's the benefit of suing?
The trouble is, most online businesses need Google to survive, and if any business 'successfully' sues Google for damages I can't see that business being indexed in the search engine for much longer and I'm pretty sure they'll be barred from ever having another Adwords account.
Ultimately Google own us all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]