Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated PressAlphabet Inc.’s GOOGL 0.00% Google confirmed Thursday it will issue refunds for ads bought through its systems that ran on websites with fake traffic, and said a handful of its partners have agreed to do the same. The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Google was issuing refunds to some advertisers after ads purchased through its DoubleClick Bid Manager tool ended up running on websites with fraudulent traffic. At the time, Google was only prepared to reimburse advertisers for the “platform fee,” which ranged from 7% to 10% of the total ad spending. At issue is when ads run on sites with fraudulent traffic, including those loaded or clicked by software programs known as “bots” instead of humans. In a blog post, Google said a handful of major exchanges have now agreed to issue full refunds for fraudulent ad space that was purchased.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 21, 2017 21:33 UTC