Kiefel CJ Bell J Keane J Nettle J Gordon J 22. Google had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by displaying sponsored links because the sponsored links were "Google's response to a user's insertion of a search term into Google's search engine", which meant that Google did not merely pass on the contents of the sponsored links without adoption or approval in the sense essayed in Yorke v Lucas76. 58 On appeal to this Court that holding was reversed. It was considered to be axiomatic that the Google search mechanism operates according to search terms chosen by the user for the purpose of generating "organic search results". According to the primary judge's findings of fact, which were not impugned, Google was not the maker, author, creator or originator of the information in any of the sponsored links. Given evidence adduced at first instance, it was held that the primary judge was right to find, as he had, that ordinary and reasonable users of the Google search engine would have understood that the sponsored links were advertisements which Google did not endorse but was merely passing on for what they were worth. The reason for that being so was that77: "[o]n its face, each sponsored link indicates that its source is not Google, but an advertiser. The heading 'Sponsored Links' appears above both top left sponsored links and right side sponsored links, and the URL of the advertiser, appearing within each sponsored link, clearly indicates its source. Ordinary and reasonable users of the Google search engine would have understood that the sponsored links were created by advertisers. Such users would also have understood that representations made by the sponsored links were those of the advertisers, and were not adopted or endorsed by Google." 59 By contrast, this case is not concerned with sponsored links or misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to the content of sponsored links, but rather with the law of defamation in relation to responses to Google searches of another kind. There is no evidence here, on the basis of which it is possible to be persuaded to the level of satisfaction necessary for the summary disposition of the proceeding on the ground of lack of capacity to defame, that it would have been apparent to an ordinary reasonable person using the Google search engine 76 (1985) 158 CLR 661 at 666 per Mason ACJ, Wilson, Deane and Dawson JJ; [1985] HCA 65. 77 Google v ACCC (2013) 249 CLR 435 at 460 [70] per French CJ, Crennan and Kiefel JJ.

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