Google to Pay Texas $8 Million to Settle Deceptive Pixel 4 Advert Claim

pcmag.com:

Google has agreed to shell out $8 million to Texas over deceptive ads it made when promoting its Pixel 4 smartphone, Texas Attorney General Paxton announced(Opens in a new window) Friday. 

The complaint stemmed from Google having “hired radio DJs to record and broadcast detailed testimonials” about their usage of the Pixel 4 but had actually “refused to provide the DJs with a phone for them to use,” Paxton said.

The settlement comes months after Google and iHeartMedia agreed to pay $9.4 million to settle Federal Trade Commission lawsuits also about the deceptive advertisements.

Google had paid iHeartRadio to disseminate the misleading endorsements and had provided scripts for the radio DJs to read that said: “It’s my favorite phone camera out there, especially in low light, thanks to Night Sight Mode,” and “It’s also great at helping me get stuff done, thanks to the new voice-activated Google Assistant that can handle multiple tasks at once.”

In his announcement of the settlement, Attorney General Paxton said: “Texas will do whatever it takes to protect our citizens and our state economy from corporations’ false and misleading advertisements. If Google is going to advertise in Texas, their statements better be true,” adding the tech giant “made statements that were blatantly false, and our settlement holds Google accountable for lying to Texans for financial gain.”

Google did not immediately respond to PC Mag’s request for comment but told(Opens in a new window) TechCrunch at the time of the previous settlement: “We are pleased to resolve this issue. We take compliance with advertising laws seriously and have processes in place designed to help ensure we follow relevant regulations and industry standards.”

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