In early March we reported that if you take Google to small claims court, you might win. It talked about the story where a small AdSense publisher sued Google in small claims court for terminating his account and not paying him. The publisher won in small claims court, but on May 22nd, Google took the publisher back to court, to appeal the decision and Google won.

Google showed how the publisher violated the terms of service and thus had the right to be terminated. Specifically, the publisher asked his viewers to click on the Google ads, which is not in accordance with Google’s TOS. The court reversed the decision and the publisher went home empty handed.

I posted screen captures of the violation and the court PDF at Search Engine Land.

Lesson learned: Do not sue Google when you are clearly wrong, it makes all publishers look bad.

Forum discussion at Sphinn and DigitalPoint Forums.

Update: You can read the publisher’s side of the story, which has a lot more detail, over here.