Posted by Simone Knight
The Federal Court has found that Trading Post Australia Pty Ltd (Trading Post) engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by publishing an advertisement on Google's search engine website that linked searches for the words 'Kloster Ford' to Trading Post's website.
In ACCC v Trading Post Australia [2011] FCA 1086, the Federal Court dismissed allegations by the ACCC that Google engaged in practices likely to mislead consumers. The ACCC had alleged that by failing to adequately distinguish advertisements from search results, Google had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct.
Google provides an advertising service known as a 'sponsored link', which advertises a link to a paying customer's website in response to particular word searches. Trading Post paid Google for a sponsored link to its website for the words 'Kloster Ford'. Kloster Ford is a car dealership in Newcastle that competes with Trading Post for car sales.
The Federal Court said that the Kloster Ford advertisement falsely represented that Trading Post was associated or affiliated with Kloster Ford and that Trading Post's website contained information regarding Kloster Ford. Accordingly, Trading Post contravened sections 52 and 53 of the Trade Practices Act.
The Court found, however, that Google had not engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct as it had merely communicated the representations made by Trading Post without adopting or endorsing those representations.
Partner: Geoff Carter
Using a successful competitor's name in online marketing can be an effective way to get users to click on an ad. It doesn't mean that Google condones it though, and I think the Court settled the case correctly.
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