Yahoo’s Click Fraud Settlement Makes Google Look Like Suckers

Thursday, June 29th, 2006 by Andy Beal

Yahoo’s Click Fraud Settlement Makes Google Look Like Suckers

If you thought Google’s $90 million click fraud settlement was pathetic, wait until you see what Yahoo just got away with…

Under the terms of the settlement, granted preliminary approval by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles, Yahoo would pay roughly $5 million in legal fees and extend its period for reviewing advertiser click-fraud complaints to include disputed charges since January 2004. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company normally reviews only those complaints related to disputed charges that occurred within the past 60 days.

Way to go Yahoo, $5 million in legal fees and you only have to extend the “reviewing period” back to January 2004. They don’t actually have to commit to refunding the disputed clicks, just to agree to review them. Have you ever dealt with Yahoo on fraudulent clicks? They don’t just say, “you’re right, here, have your money back.”

I’m sure their legal counsel will have a conference room named after him for this sweet deal.

Via WSJ (sub)

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1 comment on “Yahoo’s Click Fraud Settlement Makes Google Look Like Suckers”

Anonymous Says:

July 9th, 2006 at 4:48 am

I think your amplifying the situation more than it really is.

I am not a SE expert as yourself, but from my understanding Google has such a large share of the search market, that you could justify Yahoo paying a smaller settlement compared to Google.

To be honest, based on Google’s search market, I think Google should pay even more, if everything else held constant.

Keep up the good work!

Marketing Pilgrim