Consumers allege Google shows ads as search results

Internet giant Google was accused on Monday of misleading web users and misidentifying sponsored links in a court case brought by Australia’s consumer watchdog. In what it says is a world-first action, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges Google failed to distinguish between paid advertisements and “organic” results generated by the search engine.

ACCC barrister Christine Adamson told the Federal Court that Google was misleading people who thought the ranking of its search results was not influenced by payments from advertisers, Australian Associated Press reported. “Google represents to the world that its search engine is so good that it can rank, out of the multitudinous entries

of the worldwide web, these entries in order of relevance of the user’s query,” she said.

Story continues below this ad

“Part of that (reputation is) that it’s not influenced by money, it’s influenced by relevance.” The regulator has also accused Google of misleading conduct over sponsored hyperlinks embedded in its results site. It alleges that in 2005, Google’s search engine listed two car dealerships from the New South Wales city of Newcastle as sponsored links, which are paid for by companies to attract Internet users.

However, the links fed through to the website of a rival to the dealerships, the classifieds magazine Trading Post, which competes with them for automotive sales.