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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that it will consider if the terms of the Google Advertising Program, bar users from availing legal remedies in India.

“This is a standard clause as per the Google program terms. These advertising programs may be availed of by millions of customers of Google India Pvt Limited within the country and, thus, the Court would like to consider as to whether such a clause would in fact prevent people like the Petitioner from availing their legal remedies in accordance with law in India or should arbitration in such cases be held in India,” the order reads.

A single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justice Pratibha Singh was hearing an application under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act filed by Startupwala Private Limited.

The application sought direction to be issued to Google to maintain the status quo of all ads of the petitioner that were marked as disapproved or limited by Google.

The petitioner claimed that since August 2023, some of the advertisements released by the petitioner were being disapproved by Google's advertisement program, citing a policy called 'Government Documents and Official Services'.

The petitioner submitted that Clause 13 of the Advertisement Terms provides for an arbitration clause stating that disputes between parties would be resolved by arbitration conducted in Santa Clara County, California, USA.

It was also submitted that this is a standard arbitration clause in the Advertisement Terms and that it precludes the petitioner from exercising its legal remedies effectively.

The high court has asked Google to file its reply within 2 weeks and ordered the advertisements to run as they are running without any modifications.

“..it is directed that those advertisements which have currently not been blocked and are labelled as `Eligible (limited)’ in the above screenshots shall not be blocked or taken down till the next date of hearing. Mr. Mason submits that the said advertisements which are under the Petitioner’s control ought not to be modified. Accordingly, the above order shall be subject to the condition that the advertisements would be run as they are running and the content thereof shall not be modified till the next date of hearing,” the order reads.