Google is dealing with a new legal dispute related to its Pixel 4. At stake are payments to influencers to promote a device they never had in their possession.
The events will have occurred in 20219 and 2020 and could set up a case of misleading advertising. As a result, the American giant could be sentenced to pay a fine of 9.4 million dollars.
Google paid people who never used the Pixel 4 to promote them
The indictment was brought by the FTC, the US federal agency for consumer protection and market competition, and seven other US states. According to it, iHeartMedia produced around 29,000 false advertisements alluding to the Google pixel 4.
According to the indictment, Google paid radio personalities to promote its smartphones. So far so good, but the problem is that these ads were written by Google itself and the influencers didn’t even have access to the product.
In these ads we could hear phrases like “It’s my favorite phone camera, especially in low light conditions, thanks to the Night Sight mode” or “It’s also great to help me get things done, thanks to the new voice-activated Google Assistant that can handle multiple tasks at the same time.
Google will have paid about 2.6 million dollars to iHeartMedia for its announcers to make these statements. It is also mentioned that the technology company paid around US$2 million to minor media for the same practice.
For the FTC, it is a case of disloyalty to the consumer, and may even be considered misleading advertising. The federal entity believes that consumers expect transparent advertising and that this type of opinion is based on real and impartial experiences.
Several US states have joined the FTC in this indictment and are asking that Google be ordered to pay $9.4 million in fines. We will see what the verdict of the American judicial bodies will be.