Google will pay US justice 500 million dollars for spreading the advertising messages of some companies that market unlicensed drugs. According to federal authorities, the one reached is one of the most onerous lump sum agreements ever seen in the United States. But it will allow the search engine company to avoid the troubles of a criminal case.
For most Canadian pharmaceutical companies, it is illegal to export prescription drugs to the US. Google knew it, but from 2003 to 2009 it continued to place ads for these companies on AdWords, its advertising search system. He even gave tips on how to make ads more effective. A practice that stopped only two years ago, when the leaders of Mountain View learned of the judicial investigation against them.
"We have long since deleted the advertisements of medicines exported to the United States by Canadian pharmaceutical companies - reads a note from Google - but in hindsight it is obvious that we should have avoided publishing them from the beginning".
Source:
Financial Times
