By Star Chang, posted Jul 17, 2010 at 3:00 AM, 302 views,

China online shoe-seller sues Google

Well, not only the Chinese Government getting trouble with Google, looks like some local online store dislikes Google too. A Beijing online shoe-seller, known as Letao, accuses Google of unfair competition and violating advertisement laws, suing Google for damaging its reputation. Letao claimed that when they searched the name of the company on google.cn, the sponsored links showed: “Buying sneakers, OKBuy is better than Letao.” OkBuy is another online shoe-seller, which known as Letao’s serious competitors. Letao approached Google.cn and asked to remove the advertisement, but without success …

Letao claims that the Beijing company OKBuy, has maliciously tarnished its reputation by placing such an online ad link. The ad was telling their customers that its competitor is better than Letao, leads potential Letao buyers to turn to its competitor. The advertisement was not removed until Google received summons in June, and Letao filed its lawsuit against its competitor as well. Letao is seeking a public apology and 500,000 RMB (US$73,800) in compensation from Google. Meanwhile, spokesperson from Google China, refused to comment on the case.

Properly, there are some loopholes for advertisement in Google China right now. Surprisingly, online stores in China start to get serious on Google search results, while China most popular search engine is Baidu, not Google. Letao should be relaxed this doesn’t happened at Baidu.

Source: China Daily