Search giant Google has landed in legal trouble again but not for something they recently did. The company is being sued in Texas for radio advertising that aired from late October to early December of 2019.
According to a report by AndroidCentral, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has brought forth this lawsuit claiming that Google ran inaccurate and deceiving advertisements about its Pixel 4 smartphones in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston markets. The claims allege that Google refused to provide the Pixel 4 smartphones to the advertisers while requiring them to give a positive, personal testimony about using the product.
Specifically, the suit states that “Google demanded the recording and broadcast of the advertisements using Google’s scripted and deceptive wording” even after being informed by iHeartMedia that such practices were against the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act.
The script of these ads included phrases like “I’ve been taking studio-like photos of everything…my son’s football game… a meteor shower… a rare spotted owl that landed in my backyard.” Google had allowed the broadcasters to slightly modify the specific events spoken of in the script but did not allow them to remove the personal claims.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda stated that Google “will review the complaint but the AG’s allegations appear to misrepresent what occurred here.”
The Attorney General also added that the ads ran 2405 times on iHeartMedia radio channels between October 28, 2019, and December 2, 2019. During this period, Google did not provide the Pixel 4 device to any of the eight radio personalities that had “personalized” messages about their use of the Pixel 4 device for this advertisement.
In January 2020, Google again approach iHeartMedia to run a similar ad campaign for the Pixel 4 and did not provide the smartphones to the radio personalities until after iHeartMedia attempted to purchase them on their own. The suit added that “this continued pattern of behavior demonstrates the blatant disregard Google possesses for true and accurate advertising in the marketing and sale of its products.”
If Google is found guilty of the alleged charges, the company will be ordered to “pay civil penalties not to exceed $10,000 per violation of the DTPA to the State of Texas,” along with any court fees, according to the suit.
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(Source)
