
Apparently, tricking people into signing up for fee-riddled cell phone ringtone services does not sit well with some customers. Which is why search giant Google – which is sporting a brand new "fav icon" lately – is on the hook for letting advertisers attach the word "free" to their text ads, getting visitors to enter their mobile numbers, and then surreptitiously billing them for that hot new T.I. tone. And so comes the lawsuit, from a New Jersey woman who claims "Google accepts deceptive ads for ringtones in violation of its stated policy of only allowing ads for mobile content if the landing page 'clearly and accurately displays price, subscription, and cancellation information.'" [MP] And ya know, we're kinda all for this lawsuit; nobody should be tricked into paying for lame ringtones and phone wallpapers when they're advertised as free. (AT&T just paid $2.5m for something similar.) But we also have the same level of sympathy to those who see those awful television commercials advertising free ringstones, where half the screen is filled with unreadable fine print, and the other half is asking you to text "SXXXY" to 430459.

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