In a class-action suit filed this week, Google is said to have defrauded advertisers by charging them for unwanted third-party ads.
The suit is of particular interest to online adult companies, because the porn industry generates millions for the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant.
Plaintiffs claim Google deceptively causes advertisers to believe “there is no option to opt out of content ads during the AdWords registration process,” because “nowhere ... in the registration process, is there the option to opt out of content ads,” according to the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
The suit, which raises fraudulent concealment claims, said that Google has charged those advertisers who leave an input blank for content ads on third-party websites when they sign up.
“Plaintiff, like any reasonable consumer, expected that leaving an input blank would indicate that he did not given the option of opting out of content bids during the advertising campaign creation process,” the suit said. “This expectation was supported by the fact that plaintiff was not given the option of opting out of content bids during the advertising campaign creation process.”
The suit, brought on by private detective David Almeida, asks for more than $5 million in damages and restraining order against the search engine for its ad practices.
