Axa defeats Google-spoofing advertiser

A court has found a credit hire organisation to be in “serious breach” of the FCA’s consumer protection principles following an investigation by Axa and Keoghs.

The investigation was launched following an incident in 2021, with Axa’s policyholder wanting to report a crash for which he was not at fault.

After searching Google for a number, he dialled what he thought was a legitimate number. This also appeared as the first result on the search engine.

However, he got through to a credit hire organisation, unrelated to Axa or its affiliates.

And when speaking with an operative at the roadside, the policyholder wrongly assumed he was entering into an agreement with his insurer, when in fact he had signed a contract with the credit hire organisation.

The agreement included payment obligations for hire, recovery, storage and an engineer’s report.

A transcript of the call also showed that the signing process from receipt of agreement to return took a matter of seconds and was completed there and then at the scene of the incident.

Court decision

Once it was revealed that the consumer was not dealing with his insurer and had been the victim of a Google-spoof ad, he no longer co-operated.

The organisation decided to take the customer to court to recover 100% of its costs, which was ultimately defeated by Keoghs and Axa.

And given the ad’s web address contained its name, Axa also successfully requested it be removed for breaching Google’s terms and conditions.

The credit hire organisation had all claims against Axa’s policyholder dismissed and has been ordered to cover legal costs for both sides.

’Unusual circumstances’

Sarah Moat, partner at Keoghs, said: “We were able to use the unusual circumstances in this case, whereby the innocent policyholder was taken to court by a CHO, to test the FCA’s Principles in context of Google-spoof ads.

“The decision in court clearly shows that CHO’s are required to treat consumers fairly and communicate clearly at all times and particularly when customers fall victim to these scams, and while in vulnerable circumstances like in the moments following an accident.”

Deborah Talbot, senior operational manager at Axa, added: “Protecting what matters most to our customers is our priority and in this case we were able to provide support when our customer’s consumer rights had been breached.

“He fell for a realistic fraudulent Google ad and entered into a legal agreement he didn’t understand.

“The successful result of this case reinforces to the industry that CHOs have a legal obligation not to misrepresent themselves to customers, especially at a time when they are at their most vulnerable.”