Google Reaches $500 Million Settlement With Feds

bonch writes "As expected, Google will pay the government $500 million to settle a criminal probe into whether or not they profited from the display of ads from illegal online pharmacies. Google had vaguely referenced its settlement plans in a quarterly filing last May after charges that ads from rogue pharmacies were still appearing on Google despite a change in advertising policy. Drug advertising generates lucrative profits of about $1 billion, leading critics to charge that companies like Google aren't vigilant enough in policing their advertisers."

Comments

Question

[Anonymous Coward]

So Google makes a billion dollars in profit doing something they later get fined half a billion dollars for. What exactly is the incentive to not do something like this again in the future? Seems like paying a fine is a cost of doing business that is well worth it in these cases!

And NBC et al paid how much for Enzyte?

[pla]

First of all, TFA makes it sound like a straightforward case of "don't advertise illegal crap". Google didn't outright take ads for vendors of illegal drugs, they took ads for entirely legal Canadian pharmacies. The FDA just doesn't like anyone cutting in on US pharmaceutical industry profits (even when the drugs come from those very same US companies).

Second, if merely accepting ads from unkosher sources commits a crime, then why the hell haven't the major broadcast networks gotten the smack-down for showing a non-stop string of crapvertisements from the likes of such blatant frauds as Enzyte and Head On?

Oh. Right. "Online", the magic word that makes everything old new and illegal again.

Re:And NBC et al paid how much for Enzyte?

[pla]

You're an idiot. You do realize many Canadian drugs come from the USA, right? Dumb ass.

Okay, let's go over what you quoted back to me, shall we dear grasshopper?

"The FDA just doesn't like anyone cutting in on US pharmaceutical industry profits" - If we stop reading here, then yes indeed, I deserve the "dumbass" label. But wait! I didn't stop writing there. Let's continue...

"(even when the drugs come from those very same US companies)." - Even when the drugs come from those very same US companies. Funny, that sounds strangely familiar... Now where have I heard that recently? Oh! Right! "many Canadian drugs come from the USA". Huh, imagine that! You said the same thing I did!

Dumbass.

Re:And NBC et al paid how much for Enzyte?

[gad_zuki!]

Yes, socialized medicine leads to a better negotiation position thus Canadians and Europeans can command lower prices for US drugs. Here in the US where we're 37th in the world in healthcare, we actually pay more.

The idea of selling Canadian or European drugs back to Americans scares the pharmaceutical industry so much that they've set the federal government after google. Ah, American healthcare. Shitty and expensive and defended by every Republican around.

Re:How does google know that they are illegal?

[MacGyver2210]

Isn't it sort of the government's responsibility to crack down on illegal activity, and not the search engines'? Is Google now the police? Should they be expected to recognize every crime online and somehow thwart it? If they index a security camera, which happens to record a crime, and Google could have reasonably logged in and watched it happen, should they be accountable for not stopping it?

For fuck's sake...

Sometimes I think Google would do a better job running this country than the fucktards we elect. Do your fucking job for once, government.

Re:Big Pharma

[witherstaff]

I couldn't agree more. When the Gov stopped the senior citizen bus trips to Canada for pharmacy refills that saved them bundles you know it was all about the almighty dollar of Big Pharma. In almost every other industry the Internet has saved people money by finding the best reseller, except those with strong gov't lobbying efforts.