Google Agrees to Pay $8 Million Settlement Over Deceptive Pixel 4 Ad Claim

Google had agreed to pay $8 million to settle the state of Texas over deceptive radio advertisements for the Pixel 4 series that ran in 2019 and 2020. The company was accused of engaging in false, misleading, deceptive acts and practices.

Agreeing to Pay $8 Million Settlement

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office announced that Google will be paying $8 million to the state of Texas to settle claims that the company used deceptive advertisements as part of the Pixel 4 and Pixel XL smartphone promotion in 2019-2020. The tech giant has been long scrutinized for antitrust and consumer protection infractions.

This will vindicate Paxton, who stated that Texas will do whatever it takes in order to protect its citizens and its state economy from big corporations' false and misleading advertisements only for potential gain. He added if the company is going to advertise in their state, Google's statements better be true, especially since it influences its consumers and saturates the market.

Reuters reported that the latest settlement becomes the latest in a series of lawsuits against Google, to which the company responded through a spokesperson and stated, "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."

Deceptive Ads

Google also previously settled with the Federal Trade Commission and six other states for $9 million over the same radio spots in a separate lawsuit. Phone Arena reported that this started when Google created an ad copy for iHeartMedia announced to promote its latest offerings. DJs were asked to say that they used the phones and loved the features like camera quality.

When the copy was written for the announcers to read, it was known that both Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL had not been released. This means that every word uttered by the DJs in the promotion segment was made up. The script also stated that DJs were taking photos in every situation like their son's football game, a meteor shower, Owl spottings, and more.

The DJs ironically stated while promoting, "Pics or it did not happen, am I right?", which clearly did not because Google failed to provide the announcers with advanced Pixel 4 units to test the device prior to the promotion.

Paxton continues to aggressively defend the state and its community against Big Tech corporations. Gizmodo reported that he filed one lawsuit after another against companies like Facebook, Snapchat, and GoFundMe. Google was targeted by the AG repeatedly with lawsuits, including a claim of abusing its market power to secure money from online publishers.

As noted in the settlement press release, Paxton stated that it is imperative that companies like Google do not expect or enjoy special treatment under the law and must be held accountable for their misdeeds. "I will continue to protect the integrity of our marketplace and ensure that companies who lie to Texas consumers are held to account."