Hamey

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Google to court over failing to distinguish between organic search results and sponsored links. The case is arguing against Google’s pay-per-click AdSense program.

The claim is that Trading Post (auto trader) violated Trade Practices by using competitor names “Kloster Ford” and “Charlestown Toyota” in the title of their sponsored links.

This has been fought in various other countries, usually with Google coming out on top.

So how “competitive” do we let companies get? Does online advertising deserve different policy?