Groupon Sued For Its Google AdWords
from the advertise-better dept
A San Francisco tour company is now suing Groupon because it doesn't like the company's ads that were placed on Google AdWords. As you probably know, Google AdWords involves buying up keywords for ads that will be shown when people search for those words. Part of the process is that you bid how much you're willing to pay per click, and Google sprinkles some of its magic pixie dust and ranks the ads on a combination of how much people are willing to pay... and how often such ads are clicked (i.e., how effective they are).However, San Francisco Comprehensive Tours is claiming that Groupon put up false or misleading ads based on the types of terms it used to buy. Things like "San Francisco Tours," "Alcatraz Tours," and "Napa Wine Tours." Apparently Groupon bid a high amount, because its ads shot up the list and the tour company claimed it had to pay more itself to keep moving up the ad listing. Of course, that's just how AdWords works, so what's the problem? Well, according to the tour company, Groupon was being misleading, because most of the time it offers none of the things that were being advertised, though in a few rare instances it has offered those things.
I can certainly understand why the tour company is upset, but I'm not sure it should be legally actionable. First of all, assuming there was a legitimate competitor, and they did the exact same thing, there would be no problem. Thus, just having your ads pushed down by a competitor is not and should not be against the law. And, if that's the case, can the tour company really claim "harm" here? It could have faced the exact same issue from a competitor, or even from someone who just bought the keywords to advertise something else. So, the real issue is whether the ads were misleading. And, if that's the case, it seems like more of an issue for the FTC rather than a private company. In fact, I'm wondering if there really was that much "harm" to the tour company? After all, if someone really is looking for a Napa wine tour, and they go to Groupon and see no such tour being offered, they're likely to go back and visit the next compelling ad on the list. In other words, this seems like the sort of thing that should pretty quickly work itself out.
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: ads, competition, false advertising
Companies: groupon, sf comprehensive tours
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Trouble is..
Fail on San Francisco Comprehensive Tours part for using anti-competitive practices.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
May companies does same
Well I think this is not legally actionable... would be a great revolution in traffic-brokerage many operator does..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think Craypion is a much more interesting topic though, in that they apparently don't develop any Android Apps, but they do come up in a search, say, for Second Life, in the Market and when you install their app, you get nothing. The general comments under their 'apps' seem to explain that they are counting the numbers of downloads/installs for certain key words and don't actually provide any real content. That is far more annoying to me than Groupon paying for seemingly irrelevant keywords that make other companies competing for ad space (See? They ARE competitors!) have to shell out a little more cash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Groupon Sued For Its Google AdWords
We really need to enter into a loser pays all civil legal system. This would drastically cut down on the frivolous litigation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Groupon Sued For Its Google AdWords
It would also chill a lot of legitimate litigation, as it increases the cost uncertainty of bringing a case to court. Few cases that get past the pleading stage are slam dunks, so there's always a risk of losing one's case, even if the claim had merit. The risk of losing and having to pay the other side's costs would strongly discourage a potential plaintiff from filing a complaint and vindicating his/her rights.
Besides, what you may consider frivolous may not be so considered by a judge. And in any event, we already have mechanisms for tossing frivolous lawsuits, Rule 11 sanctions being one of them. I realize that the court system is already being taxed by an influx of lawsuits. But the cure should not be worse than the disease.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
FTC makes more sense
This is different from State Farm putting an ad on "Allstate" in that when you type "Allstate" an ad saying "Check out State Farm" could show up. Not misleading.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: FTC makes more sense
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Use of keywords is not avertising it is targeting
However Keywords in advertising are used to target your audience. People who like "this" also like "that". Groupon wants to get their advertisement in front of people who like to go on tours, because they have found that tour people use their product. The fact that they do not sell tours does not make their use of the keyword wrong.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Keywords are the best tool to market the product!
Each and every company in the online world uses advertising with Google adwords. So nothing matters to sue Groupon.
Some of best Groupon clone softwares are also emerging out successfully with the help of Google adwords. So, these ads are only for marketing the business and not for anything else.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Contact
We really like your blog post and we would like to reach out to your in order to become guest blogger for our blog.
Please contact us using the form you find on: http://www.optimizedgroup.it/
Kind Regards
Richard.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]