{"id":21074,"date":"2016-08-25T06:42:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T13:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.accessrx.com\/blog\/?p=3022"},"modified":"2011-08-25T06:42:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T13:42:51","slug":"google-pays-jd0825","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/google-pays-jd0825\/","title":{"rendered":"Google pays $500 Million to US Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"online<\/a>The US Justice Department announced yesterday that Google INC would be paying $500 million for allowing Canadian pharmacies to advertise through its Adwords program in the US.\u00a0 In an effort to avoid criminal prosecution and to retain a good \u201cmoral\u201d image, Google willingly surrendered this tremendous sum of money to the Justice Department.\u00a0 This is by far one of the largest payouts ever made to the US government.<\/p>\n

Sale of these controlled substances in the US is illegal, since there is often little or no government regulation in the country of origin.\u00a0 The US Justice Department found that Google was aiding the Canadian Pharmacies in selling both regulated and unregulated medications<\/a> online.\u00a0 Many of these medications are completely unregulated, since they are shipped directly from overseas, and often from third world countries where the government has no quality assurance or regulations regarding their production.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Google made a number of compliance changes in an attempt to prevent the illegal sale of pharmaceuticals in the US.\u00a0 This included requiring all online pharmacies to be certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy\u2019s Verified Internet Pharmacy Practices Sites program.\u00a0 This association regulates online consultations with doctors and the prescriptions they provide.\u00a0 Most notably, it does not certify Canadian online pharmacies.<\/p>\n

Google also hired an independent company to analyze and test their screening measures to assure they weren\u2019t being compromised by these pharmacies.<\/p>\n

In a sign of good faith and morality, Google had already pulled the advertisements and had\"Google,<\/a> ceased allowing Canadian pharmacies to advertise through them.\u00a0 However, these corrective measures were found to be too little and too late, as they had already drawn the watchful eye of the Justice Department.\u00a0 Their decision to settle the issue was a wise one, as a criminal conviction could blemish their good image, and could also render them ineligible to bid on government contracts in the future, which is a major source of profit for the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of Justice will continue to hold accountable companies who in their bid for profits violate federal law and put at risk the health and safety of American consumers,\u201d said Deputy Attorney General Cole.\u00a0 \u201cThis settlement ensures that Google will reform its improper advertising practices with regard to these pharmacies while paying one of the largest financial forfeiture penalties in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google signed an agreement stating it understands that it improperly assisted Canadian online pharmacy advertisers to run ads which targeted the US consumer base.\u00a0 It has fully accepted responsibility for this mistake, and has agreed to a new set of strict compliance regulations to assure that this never happens again in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Justice Department announced yesterday that Google INC would be paying $500 million for allowing Canadian pharmacies to advertise through its Adwords program in the US.\u00a0 In an effort to avoid criminal prosecution and to retain a good \u201cmoral\u201d image, Google willingly surrendered this tremendous sum of money to the Justice Department.\u00a0 This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t