MY competitor is doing this for the purpose of diminishing my websites

description displayed under both of our links in search results now read th

[Practical]

The description may not play a role in ranking, but it is important because the description is what is usually displayed under the link in the SERPs. Which someone will read to decide whether to click that link or not. The keywords and metatags on my website are tailored for words, terms, names, and combinations thereof, in connection with goods and services I offer on my website. And have enhanced my website’s recognition by search engines. And I have maintained an ongoing economic advantage through high ranking in search engine results lists for searches of many of the products on my website. A Competitor in my industry has copied the keywords and description metatags from my websites source code, exactly (even words I have in bold they have in bold). And the description tag is not actually on the competitor’s actual web page at all, the description tag is actually on my sites actual web page. The worst part course is the description displayed under both of our links in search results now read the exact same. This is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception, in the content of my website, and traffic to my site will be affected. No doubt my competitor is doing this for the purpose of diminishing my websites position in search engine rankings and taking over its place in those rankings. An appears to be working they were no where on the 1st & 2nd pages of the search results prior to the theft & now they are quickly moving up. Can this be? Can anybody give any advice on what to do about this? Also does this qualify as dupe content (or whatever you want to call it) and maybe my site will be given a penalty?

[Stefan]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Practical.

The description may not play a role in ranking, but it is important because the description is what is usually displayed under the link in the SERPs

Not necessarily, and in most case it's snippets rather than the meta tag.

A Competitor in my industry has copied the keywords and description metatags from my websites source code, exactly (even words I have in bold they have in bold).

Consider yourself lucky that he's not using your on-page content as well ;-)

Can anybody give any advice on what to do about this?

You could increase the quality of the on-page content by adding some more text, with appropriate keywords used judiciously. More inbound links. More pages. It shouldn't be hard to beat someone who only steals your meta tags.

Also does this qualify as dupe content (or whatever you want to call it) and maybe my site will be given a penalty?

It's not duplicate content unless he steals your entire page, format and all. The meta tags won't make any difference.