Court Dismisses Gambling Advert Lawsuit 

A court in California has quietly dismissed a lawsuit that was brought against search engine giants Google and Yahoo! for displaying gambling adverts alongside search results.

According to a piece from MediaPost News, California Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled late last week that the search engines were immune from liability because the Federal Communications Decency Act shields websites from liability for material provided by outside companies. He also found that there was no reason to issue an injunction against the companies because they had already ceased accepting gambling ads in the United States.

'Without comment on whether defendants' sponsoring online gambling sites in the past was wrongful, it is clear from the evidence that each defendant has ceased such sponsorship,' wrote Judge Kramer.

The lawsuit dates back to 2004 and was filed by two California residents, one of whom allegedly lost $100,000 gambling online. Yahoo! and Google were named as defendants alongside a host of other companies with the claimants alleging that the gambling ads violated state law. While the suit had originally asked for monetary damages, the Court earlier ruled that the plaintiffs would only be able to obtain an injunction against the search engines if they prevailed.

Google and Yahoo! joined Microsoft last year in paying $31.5 million to the US Department of Justice for promoting gambling. The Federal Communications Decency Act didn't protect the firms in that case because the law contains an exception for certain Federal criminal cases.