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Google Sues Dodgy Advertisers

Posted by samzenpus on from the we-said-don't-be-evil dept.

angry tapir writes "Google is at its wit's end dealing with illegal sellers of prescription drugs that market medicines on its ad network, so it has decided to take some of these allegedly rogue advertisers to court. Rogue prescription drug sellers have increased in number and become more sophisticated in their dealings, and 'a small percentage' of them have been able to dodge Google's efforts to block them from running ads on its network, according to the company."

2 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong way to do it? by Mathinker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From reading the article, it seems that they are suing for breach of the AdWords contract. This seems unlikely to me to shut down the illegal pharmacies, unless Google is paying investigators to actually do business with the pharmacies and track them down "in real life" --- in which case, why not just give the evidence they obtain to the applicable LEOs?

    I suppose one doesn't prevent the other, but the article doesn't at all address this possibility, in fact, it spins the story like Google might be doing this for CYA in case law enforcement catches these guys all by themselves.

    1. Re:Wrong way to do it? by koterica · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Does Google care about illegal pharmacies? It looks to me like they just don't want to be in the rather embarrassing position of advertising them.
      However, it is pretty amazing that the response is a lawsuit. I would think that Google, of all people, would be able to filter them out.