EightBlack.

This case just seems so pointless. I posted about it here in case you missed it.

In today’s Australian Financial Review,

“The competition regulators case  against Google for misleading conduct over sponsored internet search results made a shaky start yesterday when the Federal Court ordered it to confine its allegations to two pages - double spaced”.

Clearly, Judge Allsop was cranky. I even think that he thinks the whole thing is a waste of time.

I said it back in the original post and I’ll repeat it here. This is going to get tossed. In one sense, the ACCC have already failed with this flagrant waste of tax dollars in that they were hoping to rope in Google Inc, and Google UK/Ireland into the pissing match.

My bet is that the Google US and Google Europe lawyers wouldn’t even get out of bed for something like this. Judge Allsop also stated that there was insufficient evidence before the court to show that the Google Mother Ship was involved.

Judge Allsop also referred to the ACCC’s presentation of the case as “prolix and irritating”. 

Which it is. And if I knew what “prolix” meant, I’d respond with something equally as pithy. Ok, ok, I just looked it up. It means “tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length”.

Graeme Samuel, the beleagured Chairman of the ACCC needs to pick another fight. And one that he can win. Because this one is already over.  Google’s Adwords model has already stood up to multiple tests in courts the world over and they clearly stipulate what is and what isn’t a “sponsored” link. If someone can’t easily tell - then they need glasses or should rent a teenager for the weekend. Arguing over the shaded box that surrounds text ads is simply nonsense.

Google has also tightened the belt here in Australia on using trademarked names within Adwords campaigns.

I just don’t get it. On the surface, Samuel is a smart guy. He’s even got 2 law degrees - and apparently he even studied for them.

It’s time for the ACCC to let this one go. What do you think?

Subscribe to more posts like this

Related Posts:

Add to | | | View blog reactions

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Google, Predictions..., Search Engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.