Australia Watch 4

From News.com

Australian court sets June date for Google case

By Reuters

Google will go before an Australian court in June next year to defend allegations made by the nation’s competition regulator over alleged misleading sponsored advertising links. Australia’s Federal Court on Friday set a June 23 hearing date for the case bought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Google said. The watchdog says Google has not done enough to distinguish between sponsored advertising links and the search links that result when customers type keywords into Google’s search system, which it asserts are deceptive.

Google has denied the allegations. “The ACCC’s claims against Google are entirely without merit, and we will continue to defend against them vigorously,” Google said in a statement Friday. The ACCC case centers on auto dealer Trading Post Australia. The commission alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by Trading Post and Google stemming from advertising that appeared on Google’s Web site in 2005. An ACCC spokeswoman declined to comment.