The ACCC has filed an appeal against the recent decision by Justice Nicholas of the Federal Court in relation to certain advertisements appearing on Google's website.
The ACCC appeal to the Full Federal Court is in respect of four advertisements. Justice Nicholas found that Google would have been unable to show that it had no reason to suspect that publication of these advertisements was a breach of the Act. The ACCC has stated that it considers that the Full Court may find that Google made the representations in question and find Google directly responsible for the publication. In the first instance judgment, Justice Nicholas found that although a number of the advertisements were misleading or deceptive, Google had not made those representations. Google merely communicated representations made by the advertiser. As such, Justice Nicholas ruled that Google had not breached the Trade Practices Act.
The appeal has been listed for hearing for 2 days commencing 27 February 2012.
