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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