This comes with no surprise but yesterday the Department of Justice released a statement declaring Google is forfeiting “$500 million for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to place advertisements through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the United States, resulting in the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs into the United States.”

Google told Search Engine Land that they removed the ads a while ago but in hindsight should have never allowed such ads to run. Google said:

You can read the full announcement for the DOJ over here.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some members thinking the settlement isn’t exactly fair. One said:

Anyway, this was the agreed settlement and it seems to be done now.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.