Amul serves legal notice to Google India over "misuse of platform"

Google India has been served a legal notice by an Indian dairy company Amul. The notice, issued on January 10, talks about Google's AdWords platform being misused in order to carry out fraudulent practices by individuals and organisations.

According to Amul, a series of fake business-to-business (B2B) campaigns about "Amul Parlours, Distributors" was being advertised through fake websites using advertisements on Google Search. Since September 2018, Amul says, these campaigns are mainly about fake promises of a business opportunity with Amul.

"They (Google) have benefited from Google Search advertising campaigns, which are being misused to scam innocent individuals in the name of Amul in India," GCMMF managing director RS Sodhi said.

Also Read | Amazon employee reports strange WhatsApp issue that made her privy to stranger's chat history

Amul alleges Google Adwords platform does allow anyone to use its paid promotion services without any background checks and in return, earn click-based revenue by displaying ads on Google's search page and other websites. Amul said it has raised the issue with Google India and sought their help to stop Google Adwords platform from being misused.

Sodhi also said many Indians across different parts of the country as well as age groups have been robbed of their hard-earned money. Amul also ran a promoted advertisement on Google Search to create awareness against such fake campaigns.