Australian federal court judge James Allsop has asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to provide more evidence that Google has misled the public. The ACCC alleges that Google was not clear enough in distinguishing between “organic” search results and sponsored links.

The ACCC cited a particular instance when Trading Post, a Google Adwords client, apparently used the names of NSW car dealerships Kloster Ford and Charlestown Toyota as anchor links leading to the Trading Post sites. Trading Post paid Google for every click through on sponsored links.

This according to the ACCC violated the Trade Practices Act.

The ACCC also questioned Google’s policy about putting sponsored links above organic search results in the same format as the organic search results. According to the ACCC, this misleads the public into thinking that the sponsored links are based on relevance, when in fact they are paid spots.

However, this argument did not seem to convince Justice Allsop, who asked ACCC barrister, Christine Adamson, to give more valid details of how Google misled the public.

“This is evidence you need to identify in a pleading, how it is the representation has arisen,” said Justice Allsop.

Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin told TECH.BLORGE.com that “from the outset, we have stated said this case is wrongly based … our focus is on delivering relevant information to Australian users and helping Australian businesses enjoy the benefits of search marketing.”

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Entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 8:46 pm under Advertising, Google.

Read more entries by Arnold Zafra.
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