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Fraudulent Ad Charges - Almeida sues Google

Google offers advertisers two types of ads. The first is a search ad. When an user uses Google to search for a specific term, Google will display the ads of advertisers who have bid for those particular keywords. The second type of ad is contextual based ads. These ads are shown on third party web sites that have content that matches the keywords bid on by the advertiser. When signing up, the advertiser has to select the maximum daily budget and the maximum CPC bid. The advertiser has two choices "Default CPC bid" and the "CPC content bid". Next to the "CPC content bid" input is the word "optional". According to a lawsuit brought by Almeida advertisers who left the optional content bid section of the form blank believed they were opting out of content advertisement. This expectation was supported by the fact that users were not given the option of opting out of content bids during the advertising campaign creation process. So Almeida claims that Google fraudulently concealed the fact that advertisers would be charged for the third-party content ads even if they did not complete the portion of the sign-up form. He alleges that Google's actions constitute an unfair or deceptive practice within the meaning of California Business and Professions Code sections 172000 et seq.

Maybe the plaintiff should have had a look at the AdWords Help Center? Check out http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6276.

 

 

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