[threejay]

At least re: online pharmacy, that's patently false. Coming from someone who currently runs a legitimate online pharmacy, there is a 9-12 month accreditation process (VIPPS) that adwords, etc requires before letting you advertise.

[patio11]

That's presumably because Google doesn't want to be fined another $500 million for having their AdWords sales reps give their pharmacy customers advice on how to avoid Google's pharmacy compliance rules.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/google-reaches-500-...

[otakucode]

That would depend on whether Google is ever actually expected to PAY $500 million and whether they earned more than $500 million by breaking the law to begin with. If they made $501 million off of it, all the government has done is guarantee that is the new standard for business conduct. And usually companies that get hit with $500 million fines get that reduced to $100k or so on appeal.

[ktsmith]

Sure, after years of essentially no regulation and Google paying a massive fine.