Getting BANNED by competitor?

[liana]

I wonder if one's site can be banned by GOOGLE because of your competitor's action.

For example,

One could use an automatic software, to check the positioning of competitor's URL in the GOogle's SERPs...

I hope GOOGLE is smart enough to take this situation into account.

Tell me I'm being paranoid...

[Deodato]

If you use automated means to query google, you risk having your IP address blocked, but not any of the sites that appear in the SERPS.

As they say though, just because you're paranoid - it doesn't mean they're not out to get you :)