Google's Adwords advertising program might have unlawfully placed customers advertisements "parked domain" and "error page" websites and thus Google did not present the Adwork ads to relevant consumers as promised.

This is a pending class action lawsuit against Google.

Google is the largest Internet search engine. Google’s principal source of revenue is the sale of online advertising. One advertising program offered by Google is what Google calls its Adwords program. Adwords in part is designed to place small advertisements on third party web sites when the content of that web site relates the the advertisement. Customers pay Google when the Internet user clicks on the customers advertisement.

Customers of Google, like all advertisers, wish to spend advertising dollars to display ads to consumers who are interested in their products and services. In this regard, the class action lawsuit alleges that Google states that its partnerships with “hundreds of thousands of high-quality websites, news pages and blogs” will help AdWords advertisers “drive conversions". A “conversion” occurs when a click on an advertisement leads directly to user behavior, such as a purchase.

The class action lawsuit further alleges that Google represents that it places ads on websites that contain content relevant to the advertisers’ products or services, and alongside the results of searches of relevant terms on Google’s search function. The class action lawsuit alleges that Google has concealed from and/or misrepresented material information to plaintiffs and the class concerning the AdWords program. Specifically, Google fails to disclose that it also places AdWords ads on millions of “parked domain” and “error page” websites. These inactive, undeveloped websites generally contain no content, and often include websites that appear in response to malformed or mistaken search inquiries and search typos.

The class action lawsuit further alleges that clicks on ads placed on such parked domain and error page websites generate huge revenues for Google, paid by plaintiffs and the class. However, these clicks result in far fewer conversions to advertisers, and therefore far less value, to plaintiffs and the class.

The class action lawsuit states that plaintiffs and the class did not agree to pay Google for clicks on ads appearing on these low quality websites. The class action complaint alleges that Google has damaged plaintiffs and the class by improperly charging them for clicks from advertising placed on such websites.