US state judge approves Google’s click fraud deal

Google’s $90 million (R631 million) class action settlement has been approved by Judge Joe Griffin. The legal action was initially brought by Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles in February 2005, and was later granted class action status. One third of the settlement (R210 million) is to be awarded to the lawyers. Advertisers accused Google of not taking adequate measures to protect them and that they were charging them for the fraudulent clicks. Google’s advertisers are charged every time a user clicks on their link in Google’s AdWords programme. Click fraud is when a malicious person, automated program or a competing company repeatedly clicks on the advertisers advert, resulting in high charges. With the rising cost of keywords coupled with click fraud, many smaller web based companies are going under or taking on more organic search engine optimisation. A few weeks ago Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google suggested that advertisers need to factor in the cost of click fraud into their ROI calculations. Google has already taken action. Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety announced this week the launch of a new AdWords feature that allows advertisers to see how many clicks Google deems to be invalid. Advertisers will not be charged for these clicks and advertisers will also have clicks credited to them should a publisher be removed from the AdSense program for invalid click activity. If you have any questions or queries about this article, please leave a comment here or you can post in our SEO discussion forum.