Trading standards called unannounced (Google Adsense)

**Exiges** · 19-04-05

I received a call from our accountants who had a chap from Trading Standards in their offices. The chap had turned up unannounced at our registered offices (not the same as our business address) hoping to speak to us.

Since we weren't at that location, our accountants put the guy on the phone and let him explain why he was there.

It turns out that Trading Standards have received complaints about adverts that we carry on our website.

I mentioned to him that all of our adverts are displayed on an as-is basis and we do not vet them.

The guy said that was irrelevant, since we are the publisher and therefore responsible for published content.

I asked him what advert(s) in particular were problematic, he said that it was the financial products we have advertised in our left hand border (Adsense ads) - it seems financial product advertising is governed by some financial services law.

I mentioned that these were Google Adsense ads and again we had no control over the editorial of these adverts.

The guy said that was irrelevant, and that we are still responsible for the content.

I suggested that they contact Google themselves, since it was likely that there are thousands and thousands of websites around the UK that are most likely contravening the financial services guidelines/laws.. and perhaps they would like to nip the problem in the bud.

He said he wasn't interested in that, and he had a list as long as your arm of websites that he was in the process of dealing with in this matter.

He's contacting me this week with a view to setting up a meeting to thrash it out fully.

Be warned

**Green2K** · 19-04-05

Cool, so that's where our tax increases have gone! More beaurocracy, and better still to people who don't understand the internet advertising industry.

I would suggest people look carefully when registering domains, whether they want their company details on there, or whether they would prefer a proxy / private registration mask, to avoid such nuicances.

I know many prefer the latter.

Green2K.

**Dayo_UK** · 19-04-05

I am surprised about this !

Thinking back to when I used to work for a financial service company (about a year ago)

If we were placing an advert in say a magazine - we were responsible for the content of the advert and the necessary small print etc - the magazine would not check that we were correct in our legal wording.

Therefore if there was a problem the FSA or whoever would have contacted us regarding the advertisement.

I would have thought this should be the same regarding Adsense, Banner ads etc - if you were creating your own wording etc then fine I can see the Trading Standards having a point.

**charlton** · 19-04-05

Sounds like a right jobsworth. Seeing as adsense displays different ads all the time for different regions, relevance and depending on who's bidding it would be impossible to police. And as it says "ads by google" I can't see how they can put the onus on the website owner. Surely they will be up against google on this unless they allow the user to select the ads manually.

**Dynamoo** · 19-04-05

You can exclude individual advertisers from AdSense, of course, but that depends on your spotting the ads in the first place - and don't forget that ads will be different for people in different countries.

I've dealt with Trading Standards before and I have to say that they were a clueless bunch with no grasp of what I was trying to tell them. In this case I was trying to report something to them but frankly it was far too difficult to make them understand.

Obviously the *logical* thing is to contact Google rather than thousands of AdSense publishers, but I think that few people outside of the web marketing world understand how it works.

Even if AdSense calls you a "publisher" - technically the content is pulled from Google's servers by the visitor's browser and in fact at no point is the content on your own server. All you are publishing is the Javascript code and that it not the same thing at all.

My advice - don't waste your time with a meeting. Ask him to communicate in writing with the exact details that are the problem first before doing anything - you can then write in response explaining the technical details and give the contact information for Google. Treat it as you would any other legal matter - formally and in writing first.

**charlton** · 19-04-05

[i]
Obviously the *logical* thing is to contact Google rather than thousands of AdSense publishers, but I think that few people outside of the web marketing world understand how it works.
[/B]

And that's the way we like it!

Its quite a laught to imagine the trading standards dweeb trying to deal with every website with finance adsense ads on it!

**AffManagement** · 20-04-05

He said he wasn't interested in that, and he had a list as long as your arm of websites that he was in the process of dealing with in this matter.
-----------------------------------------------
LOL, thats a major todo list for him then, where do they get these people from!

Neil

**OLBG** · 20-04-05

If these people did things the easy way theyd do themselves out of a job

**Dynamoo** · 20-04-05

Well, you know they're probably OK at dealing with dodgy second hand car dealers, but from the sounds of things this guy was waaay out of his depth.

And from what he was saying, it should probably have been an FSA issue rather than TS.

Oh well.. let us know what happens, eh?

**bapages** · 20-04-05

The ad will only be chosen by Google through the content of the page, change the content or place ad filters in you google control panel. Better still remove the ad sense.

However, if he is right it is the publishers responsibility then why does he not go for a gold award and persue Google themselves as the adwords are also appearing on their network?

**Lee_Owen** · 20-04-05

He may have a long list but it's always seemingly easier to go after a hundred little people rather than go for the main one.

He gets results but doesn't stop the problem, as someone has already stated, if he clicks on the google link, he'll notice the words "Give us feedback on Ads by Google" and a list of FAQs, so quite why he's following up individual websites rather than the website advertised in the ad, I don't know.

Probably because he knows he'll be spending the next year tracking all down through the courts firstly at google to gain info on accounts, secondly to see who runs the campaign and third who instructed it, so in his wisdom, going after 100 websites and asking them not to show the ads, is the easiest way.

The thing with new rules is they have to be seen to action them as soon as they come into play, so they won't have a danny what they're doing for a good time yet.

**Lee_Owen** · 20-04-05

Originally posted by bapages
However, if he is right it is the publishers responsibility then why does he not go for a gold award and persue Google themselves as the adwords are also appearing on their network?

Good comment, if the initial poster has the meeting, or writes the letter, it may be a good place to start and end the conversation in ten seconds.

**harris1** · 20-04-05

Interesting this. Has he said what the issue is ? I am presuming some of the ads are non compliant ?

I am surprised the FSA are not handling this ?

What sort of ads were being dsiplayed, credit cards, loans, mortgages, insurance etc......

**nkernick** · 20-04-05

Google Adsense adverts actually use IFRAME hidden int he Java to publish the ads, so technically the adverts are NOT on your site.

Its very much like like a picture in picture TV , showing a TV program from another channel in the bottom right hand corner.

So it would be like trading standards tackling the BBC because it had a picture in picture advert (from another channel) in the PIP box !!!!

I would also ask the Trading standards guy. Which advert was it, I will ban that URL from future publishing. He can then sit on his arse all day monitoring your site for dodgy adverts

Im sure after several conversations with website owners Trading Standards will get fed up and speak to google !!!

Nick

**harris1** · 20-04-05

The wider implication is PPC feed and CPA content. If they thing Google is a problem these certainly are....

It would be interesting to know the products the ads related to that he is not happy with. Also the area of the country he is dealing with. If it happens again with someone else we might see a pattern.