Google admits profiting from illegal Olympic ticket ads

[Lynque]

[bbc.co.uk ]

[graeme_p]

I am rather more shocked that Parliament saw fit to pass a special law making it a CRIMINAL offence to resell tickets to the Olympics.

[Lynque]

While I agree Graeme, I believe Parlaiment's intent is to ensure that the Olympics are accessible to a broader demographic than simply those who can afford it.
The Olympics are after all the People's games...

The fact that Google (and this has been going on for years) allows criminals to profit using their advertising tool and in turn make a substantial profit themselves however, is a criminal act.
I believe it's called racketeering...

[graeme_p]

Its getting a bit OT for the forum, but a "People's Games" would not have Zil Lanes, 2.2 million reserved tickets for VIPS, a host of other concessions for the elite, and nothing I can see for the ordinary Londoner except picking up the bill and a huge amount of inconvenience.

What do you think Google should do with the money? Return it to the advertisers?

I suspect Google are in the clear legally as they simply failed to prevent access to an automated system and took down the ads when asked. I do not think they have a moral obligation to do anything, given the doubtful morality of the law.

[tangor]

Google relies on "we don't look until notified" and reaps income until notified. Then we'll do something. This, more than "ticket sales governed by a UK law" or "illegal pharma into USA" is the real problem. Google can't (forever) rely on the automated aspect of their biz. At some point government (pick one, or two or a dozen) will finally demand disclosure of the black box operation upon which the company relies.

[piatkow]

Google relies on "we don't look until notified" and reaps income until notified.

There are enough complaints on the Adwords forum about sites being banned. G have the systems and the technology.

They are only getting blamed for this because the ads appeared on search. There was another "shock horror" story recently about inappropriate ads blaming the publisher (a high profile name) rather than the ad network.

When it comes to the games themselves I think graeme_p has expressed my views in a rather more moderate manner than I would use.

[Lynque]

There are a total of 8.8 million tickets available for the Olympics and 2.2 million for the Paralympics, prices starting at £20. While 20% - 25% may be reserved the games are likely accessible to the average UK resident.

To get back on topic I agree with piatkow...

G have the technology

Google has flexed their muscle in almost every other way when it comes to what is available / not available in their SERP's, it seems contradictory to find that "unofficial resellers" can't be filtered out. Not to mention the obvious - convenient.