Google has seem to have taken a major blow in Australia after The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has beat Google in appeals court on a case on search ads.

The ruling said that Google is now liable for deceptive paid search ads despite (as Pam notes) their TOS in Australia saying Google is not responsible for them, rather the advertiser is.

Google won this previously in an Australian court but an appeals court overturned the ruling yesterday.

You can read ACCC’s press release on the ruling:

A WebmasterWorld thread has advertisers going back and forth on who is right here. Some say Google should not be held liable because the ad ecosystem is simply too big to police that closely. While others feel that if Google can’t police their ad network, then they should not profit from it.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.