Developers have seized on the Indian court’s decision to revive criticism of Google’s marketing business

A recent court ruling in India against Google’s keyword advertising has drawn a lot of attention after the startup said its competitors have long used the strategy to steal customers and force companies to pay to protect their brand.

The verdict, handed down by the Delhi High Court on May 22 in a trade dispute involving toilet maker Hindware, found Google guilty of trademark infringement in its advertising practices and awarded the company ₹ 3 million (about $31,600) in nominal damages.

In its 163 pages judgement (PDF), Justice Mini Pushkarna rejected Google’s contention that it was merely an intermediary for advertising on its search platform. The judge said Google, through its AdWords platform, allowed Hindware’s opponents to use “Hindware” as a keyword for users searching for the brand.

“Google by selling the plaintiff’s trademark (Hindware) as a keyword without permission for commercial profit is violating the plaintiff’s right to use its trademark only under Section 28 of the Trade Marks Act,” said the judge.

The decision came to light on Friday after Indian entrepreneurs, including Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath and Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, went public. supported the decisionthey argue that competitors have long used Google’s advertising tools to divert traffic from well-known brands and force companies to spend money to protect their brands.

Kamath, who said that Zerodha has faced this problem for more than a decade, he wrote on X: “Every time someone searches for ‘Zerodha,’ people should come to Zerodha. But what often happens is that the first few results on Google Search are ads, which direct the customer to a competitor’s website.”

Google, for its part, said that its Ads policy on keywords “does not allow competing advertisers to use popular keywords in advertising” and that the policy is applied worldwide.

“We look forward to continuing to align our services with local laws and standards to protect the long-term interests of our users,” Google said in a statement to TechCrunch.

India is Google’s most important market, with more internet users than any other country except China, making court rulings that affect its search and advertising businesses very important.

Legal experts, however, said the impact of the decision may be less than expected.

“This decision will require the platforms to re-evaluate their strategies to see if their tools alone promote or provide a recognizable voice to many advertisers,” said Aprajita Rana, partner at AZB & Partners.

However, Rana told TechCrunch that the decision does not pose a “significant threat” to the litigation of online platforms in India, as courts have already established that online companies can lose legal protections when they engage in illegal activities.

“The most important thing in this case is how giving access to known words, even in advertising that is between online platforms and advertisers and unknown to customers, can be compared to participation in platforms,” ​​said Rana.