Why the ACCC is wrong about Google

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission's action against Google has generated a lot of interest. One article that caught my eye was James Kirby writing in the Sydney Morning Herald about his experiences with Google and the Eureka report

I don't agree with James, the size and cost of the Search Engine Optimisation industry is irrelevant to this issue. The point is that some businesses and SEO consultants are gaming the system and deceiving Internet users.

For instance, we hold the trademark for PC Rescue a search on the term "PC Rescue" in Google brings up our name as the first search item.

On the ads on the right of the screen, we find five ads that use the PC Rescue term and the top one is a local business that has almost certainly included "PC Rescue" as a phrase in their adword campaign.

Are they engaging in misleading conduct or breaching our trademark? Quite possibly.

Is Google? I don't think so. They aren't pushing or endorsing these services anymore than the SMH or Eureka report does with their advertisers.

Our trademark has been breached numerous times by IT businesses advertising in newspapers, Ebay and the Yellow Pages. While we've sent them sternly worded letters, we've never considered threatening the advertisers simply because the advertisers aren't responsible.

Just as the local paper, Ebay and Yellow Pages aren't responsible for these bozos who are too lazy to think of their trading name I can't see why Google should be. So far, the US courts have agreed with this.

There's no doubt that some advertisers are abusing the Ad Words system. They are deliberately using other's trade names as their key advertising terms.

In my non-lawyer reader of the Trade Practices Act, the ACCC certainly has a case against the Trading Post, if the allegations are true then their conduct was likely to mislead or deceive.

It's not the first time big Australian businesses have been accused of this and it's good the ACCC has decided to step in. I just suspect Google is the wrong target.