Google wins ACCC battle

THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lost its misleading conduct case against Google.
In the Federal Court in Sydney today, Justice John Nicholas said he was not satisfied that Google failed to sufficiently distinguish advertisements -- sponsored links -- from "organic" results on its search results pages.

But the judge made a declaration that Trading Post Australia had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct in relation to searches for the keyword "Kloster Ford", a Newcastle car dealership.

He ordered Trading Post to pay $28,000 towards the legal costs of the ACCC, which in turn must pay Google's costs of the proceedings.