Blumenthal Raises Alarm About Misleading & Fraudulent Ads Hosted by Google
“I am deeply concerned that Google appears unwilling to protect consumers and small businesses on Google Ads, and has demonstrated a troubling record of inadequate due diligence against fraud and abuse.”
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, raised serious concerns about Google hosting misleading and fraudulent advertisements and called on the company to provide information about its advertising policies and practices.
“Troublingly, Google has routinely failed to address dangerous scams, impersonation, cybercrime, and other fraud on its extensive advertising network,” Blumenthal wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, citing several examples of repeated advertising scams that have defrauded consumers, including ads impersonating government agencies. “These recurring examples suggests that, while Google claims certain rules in principle, in practice these policies often appear to be dead letter law.”
As Google dominates the advertising market and its search engine results page moved towards a less obvious distinction between paid and organic search results, differentiating between ads and organic content has become more difficult for consumers and an even greater challenge for small businesses attempting to compete with bigger competitors.
“Small businesses commonly report having to place expensive advertisements for their own business name to appear at the top of search results. This is an onerous burden and an indefensible tax on small business, who often cannot afford to be locked in a bidding war with deep-pocketed corporate behemoths,” Blumenthal continued, emphasizing the burden Google’s ad practices place on small businesses.
Blumenthal demanded the company provide answers about its practices and policies, and how it plans to address ongoing instances of misleading and fraudulent ads, stressing: “It is especially troubling that Google has been found repeatedly to allow the same scams and impersonation back on Google Ads, even after media reports, Congressional attention, and significant personal loss for consumers.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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