Google had been kicking publishers out of their AdSense program on flimsy grounds. The standard reason it gives is fraudulent clicks on its ads. If you ask Google, they would say - Due to the proprietary nature of our monitoring system, we’re not able to disclose any specific details of these clicks.



Now for a change, an AdSense customer is suing Google for $250,000 because Google removed the ads for which her team spent 100 hours to place and review AdSense advertisements on her Web site.



The plaintiff, Theresa B. Bradley, in a 25-page complaint in San Francisco federal district court has accuses Google of several counts of fraud and misrepresentation, including:



a) Misrepresentation in commercial advertising, and

b) ‘Willful, wanton, fraudulent and malicious’conduct regarding its AdSense product.

c) Misrepresentation in interstate commerce.



The story is that Bradley opted to participate in the AdSense program and it took over 100 hours to place the AdSense code in her website. Then she asked Google to remove the competitive AdSense advertisements, in line with AdSense user agreement.



Google in turn disabled the ads and removed Bradley from the program giving the same old excuse - fraudulent clicks on ads!



This time, she didn’t take it lying down and instead moved court. However, Google says that the case is without any merit and would fight vigorously.



It would be interesting to follow the case. A lot of things depend on the outcome that might have far reaching ramifications for the publishers participating in the AdSense program.



Read