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Google must pay $500 million for listing fraudulent pharmacy companies

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
August 24th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Fraudulent online pharmacies usually identified as Canadian - that offer medication, which is either unregulated, fake and completely without a doctor's prescription - are one of the many things on the downside on sprawling Internet commerce. Internet search engine giant Google will now have to pay $500 million to settle government charges for such pharmacies that act outside the law.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Investigations began in May, when Google said in a government filing that it set aside $500 million for the potential settlement of a Department of Justice investigation into its advertising practices.

Government officials at that time said the investigation concerned ads from illegal, online pharmacies failing to require a prescription, or from selling counterfeit drugs. According to Google, regulating these pharmacies on its site is a "cat-and-mouse game." Google claims that when it introduces new rules to prevent them from advertising, the companies find loopholes to start advertising on their search engine anew.

The Justice Department says the $500 million fine is one of the largest such penalties ever, and covers the revenue that Google earned from the illegal advertisers.

Google has since acknowledged that it improperly aided the Canadian pharmacies in advertising through its AdWords program, as part of the settlement.

"We banned the advertising of prescription drugs in the U.S. by Canadian pharmacies some time ago," Google said in a statement. "However, it's obvious with hindsight that we shouldn't have allowed these ads on Google in the first place. Given the extensive coverage this settlement has already received, we won't be commenting further."

Since 2010, after Google became aware of the investigation, it has required that all Canadian online pharmacy advertisers be certified by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association and has specified that they can advertise only to Canadian customers. United States pharmacy advertisers must be certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Web sites are liable for ads on their sites from advertisers that break federal criminal law.

© 2011, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)