Google sues rogue online pharmacies

Internet giant Google yesterday filed a suit against several rogue online pharmacies for advertising on its search engine illegally and selling drugs without prescription.

After playing a losing cat-and-mouse game against these advertisers, Google decided to file a civil lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, to block such advertisers from deceptive advertising.

Google has named just one defendant, while 49 others have been given a common name of 'John Doe' because Google does not know their real names or locations.

In its complaint, Google alleges that the rouge online advertisers "violated policies and circumvented technological measures" by using its Adwords online-ad programme to promote pharmacy and prescription-drug operations without the verification from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Writing in Google's blog post, the company's litigation counsel, Michael Zwibelman said, ''Like many online services, we have struggled with this problem for years. It's been an ongoing, escalating cat-and-mouse game - as we and others build new safeguards and guidelines, rogue online pharmacies always try new tactics to get around those protections and illegally sell drugs on the web.''

Google has been noticing in recent years that the numbers of rogue pharmacies have not only increased but also their sophistication in using Adwords for deceptive advertising.

''This has meant that despite our best efforts - from extensive verification procedures, to automated keyword blocking, to changing our ads policies - a small percentage of pharma ads from these rogue companies is still appearing on Google,'' wrote Zwibelman.
Google feels that by filing the suit, it will deter rogue advertisers from thinking about circumventing its policies to advertise illegally on Google.

Zwibelman concluded by saying, ''As we identify additional bad actors, we will add them to the lawsuit. Rogue pharmacies are bad for our users, for legitimate online pharmacies and for the entire e-commerce industry-so we are going to keep investing time and money to stop these kinds of harmful practices.''