IN BRIEF
In what is likely to be heralded as a landmark decision for
Australia's consumer watchdog, the Federal Court of Australia
has found that using Google AdWords to trade on a competitor's
business or reputation is not only a breach by the advertiser of
the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA)
(now the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)), but
also a breach by the search engine providing the advertising
service and displaying the contravening words in its search
results.
We take a look at the primary and appeal decisions and give some
guidance on what businesses might expect next.
PRIMARY PROCEEDINGS
Google's AdWords program provides a paid advertising service
that enables advertisers to target specific users on the basis of
their search term queries. These paid links, referred to as
'sponsored links'1 appear either above or
alongside organic search results.
