Google lands in trouble over 'Deceptive' Pixel 4 radio ads

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San Francisco, Jan 23 (IANS) Tech giant Google has reportedly landed in legal trouble over 'Deceptive' Pixel 4 radio advertising.

The company is being sued in Texas for radio advertising that aired from late October to early December of 2019, reports GizmoChina.

According to a report by AndroidCentral, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has brought forth this lawsuit claiming that Google ran inaccurate and deceiving advertisements about its Pixel 4 smartphones in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston markets.

The claims allege that Google refused to provide the Pixel 4 smartphones to the advertisers while requiring them to give a positive, personal testimony about using the product.

Specifically, the suit states that "Google demanded the recording and broadcast of the advertisements using Google's scripted and deceptive wording", even after being informed by iHeartMedia that such practices were against the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act.

The script of these ads included phrases like "I've been taking studio-like photos of everythingamy son's football gamea a meteor showera a rare spotted owl that landed in my backyard", the report said.

Google had allowed the broadcasters to slightly modify the specific events spoken of in the script but did not allow them to remove the personal claims.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda stated that Google "will review the complaint but the AGa¿s allegations appear to misrepresent what occurred here".

The Attorney General also added that the ads ran 2405 times on iHeartMedia radio channels between October 28, 2019, and December 2, 2019.

During this period, Google did not provide the Pixel 4 device to any of the eight radio personalities that had "personalised" messages about their use of the Pixel 4 device for this advertisement.

--IANS

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