A fascinating report in the New York Times that Google has just reached a settlement with the Department of Justice to the tune of $500 million by making money running illegal ads for fraudulent Canadian pharmacies in the United States. It's one of the largest settlements a single company has ever paid in a dispute with a government agency, and certainly the biggest paid by any tech company.
Google knew it had a problem. In a blog post, the company's litigation counsel Mike Zwibelman says the company had been chasing these rogue advertisers and was determined to get rid of them.
But that assertion is neither here nor there. The company that claims it does no evil had allowed ads for illegal pharmacies which meant it was aiding and abetting and making a profit from it as well.
But this could be just the beginning. USA Today reports that consumer watchdogs are calling for Us regulators to take a closer look at home loan, credit repair and health products ads that rely on Google's AdWords technology to saturate the Internet with dodgy advertising claims. ""Google has a very a big incentive to turn a blind eye to all sorts of sketchy and even illegal advertising," John Simpson, spokesman for non-profit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog told USA Today. "That was clearly the case with these illegal drug ads. There are problems with other types of ads, too."
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