Alright, let’s suppose we did a Google search for the keyword “ringtones,” and we clicked on one of the AdWords ad on the right side of the page. We go to some ringtones site and download a ringtone or six. Lets also suppose we are think we’re getting the ringtones for free, but we get a charge on our account next month. What do we do?

Sue Google, that’s what we do! They never should have let us click on a site that was misleading us, and they should pay us all $5 million.

Jenna Goddard, a New Jersey resident, had just such the above scenario happen to her, and now she’s suing Google. Her lawyer is also trying to turn this into a class action lawsuit.

AT&T recently moved to settle a similar lawsuit brought about by third-party ringtone providers charging customers for unauthorized purchases through their AT&T bills. This actually wasn’t particularly frivolous since AT&T was letting it happen AND reaping a profit from the activity. Since all the third-parties need to charge your account is your phone number, it’s pretty easy to sneak in unauthorized charges.

The argument brought by Goddard and her lawyer is that Google was not enforcing the terms of AdWords service that require advertisers to be up front and transparent about their pricing. Since this site violated the terms of that agreement, Goddard is suing Google–in no small part because Google isn’t exactly lacking for cash.

While the argument can be made that the AT&T situation is different since they were directly profiting off of the fraudulent transactions, one could conceivably argue that Google, by the funds garnered from the trickster company through AdWords, was profiting off of misleading advertising. No doubt a good deal of the company’s business and subsequent fraudulent billing was brought about through AdWords.

Of course, I’m probably being a little too fair to the plaintiff here. They should go after the lying ringtone provider. The big cash cow is Google, Inc., and it’s always smart to sue the big dog.

Story via Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica: Shoot the messenger! Google sued over “fraudulent” AdWords

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 11:47 amand is filed under Business, Search Engine Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.