Google clarifies AdWords policy to satisfy French competition regulator

Google suspended the advertising account of Navx in November of last year. The company operates websites which provide information to drivers, including details of the locations of speed cameras.

Google's advertising policy barred the advertising of speed camera location services, but the Autorité de la Concurrence, France's competition watchdog, responded to a complaint by Navx by telling Google to lift the ban while it investigated.

It said that Google's policy risked treating companies in a discriminatory way. "The content policy of Adwords was implemented by Google in conditions that lack objectivity and transparency and which lead to the discriminatory treatment of providers of databases on (roadside) speed cameras," it said at the time.

Navx said that traffic to its website collapsed in the aftermath of the ban.

When the Autorité de la Concurrence carried out its preliminary assessment of the issue, Google proposed changes to its rules which the authority has now accepted.

"In view of the observations delivered by interested third parties, Google commits itself to make the functioning of its AdWords service concerning devices aimed at evading road traffic speed cameras in France more transparent and predictable for advertisers," it said in a statement.

The Autorité said that Google had promised to make it clearer exactly which devices or services were covered by its ban; to define more closely the scope of the ban; to give affected companies three months notice of any substantial changes; and not to cancel advertising contracts without first issuing two warnings to companies.

"The commitments have been adopted for a duration of three years. They provide the concerned operators with guarantees which were not recognised in the latter system, while preserving Google's freedom to define its contents policy," said the Autorité.

"The Autorité accepts and makes compulsory Google's commitments – that have been improved in relation to those initially proposed – as they address its competition concerns," it said.

Google's AdWords system operates by allowing companies to buy the right for their ads to appear beside the natural results when certain terms are searched for.

It has proved controversial, particularly in France, where courts have ruled that Google cannot sell the right for companies to buy the right for their ads to appear when a rival's trade mark is searched for.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled earlier this year that that activity is only against trade mark law if it causes confusion in the mind of the user about which company is behind the advert.