Adding to the growing pile of people trying to sue money out of Google is JIT Packaging, the third company this summer to sue the search giant after failing to see a return on its investment with AdSense.
JIT Packaging alleges that Google hid the degree to which its AdWords program put the company’s ads on low-quality pages, parked domains, and error pages that resulted in almost no conversions for its customers.
This comes on the heels of two other lawsuits filed earlier in the summer (including Boston lawyer Hal K. Levitte, who sued after failing to see any results from the whopping $136.11 of his ads that Google placed on parked domains and error pages) who realized that a high percentage of their ads placed on these sites did not convert into leads.
Media sellers do not guarantee conversion, but in May, Google conceded a bit, changing its Site Inclusion tool to allow advertisers to stop their ads from appearing on parked domains or error pages. JIT alleges that it is still unclear.
Google’s changes to their AdSense policy could help them avoid liability, but the judge’s decision on this case will show whether there is a chance for this to explode into a larger class action lawsuit. If the court is sympathetic to the complaints, these low-conversion ads could be much more costly than Google imagined.
Photo: Flickr/ Jef Poskanzer
