Eric Goldman reports that Google has won the Maughan v. Google case where Mark Maughan filed a suit against Google for the content displayed in the snippets area under a search results listing in Google.com. A search on Mark Maughan Accountancy currently shows the number one listing from www.dca.ca.gov/cba/discipline/ma-me.htm. The snippet looks like:
The complaint was that a search like the above and other variations of it “generates a list of websites ‘suggesting’ he was disciplined by the California Board of Accountancy for ‘gross negligence’ and accepting a contingent fee for the preparation of tax returns, which he says are ‘veritable scarlet letters in the accounting world’.”
Google won the case, and was also rewarded $23,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.