By Josh Taylor | September 12, 2012 08:58 AEST
Google has told the High Court of Australia that a ruling by the full bench of the Federal Court that Google is responsible for misleading ads in its search results could have wider implications outside of just online advertising.
The case centred around sponsored links in Google search results through its AdWords program by online trading company Trading Post and STA Travel. In April, the full bench of the Federal Court ruled, on appeal from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), that Google advertisements with the headline of “Harvey World Travel” or “Harvey World” that redirected to an STA Travel website were in breach of section 52 of the Trade Practices Act. Similarly, ads headlined with “Honda.com.au” that redirected to car-trading website CarSales, ads headlined “Alpha Dog Training” that linked to The Dog Trainer, and ads headlined “Just 4x4s Magazine” that redirected to the Trading Post website were also in breach of the Trade Practices Act.
Google appealed the decision to the High Court, and on Tuesday made its case for why Google is not adopting or endorsing the advertisements that have appeared in its search results.
