Flop of the week: Damage becomes replacement
Google has to pay 350,000 euros. A French court ordered the California-based search engine operator to pay this amount in damages to the French tour operators Terres d’aventure (150,000 euros) and Voyageurs du monde (200,000 euros).
Google is out 350,000 euros. A French court ordered the Californian search engine operator to pay this amount in damages to the French tour operators Terres d'aventure (150,000 euros) and Voyageurs du monde (200,000 euros). The two companies had filed a lawsuit against Google France because they had noticed that advertising links from competitors were appearing when their names were entered into Google. Apparently, Easyjet and Co. had been able to book AdWords for terms for which the two travel companies own the trademark rights. According to the Paris Regional Court, Google should have stopped this. In addition, the competitor ads were not sufficiently labeled as advertising. Google had already lost the landmark case against the two travel companies in October 2008. The ruling initially only affects France. Nevertheless, more caution is obviously required in future when advertising via AdWords.
