The State Attorney General’s Office joined a coalition of five other states and the Federal Trade Commission for misleading advertisements from Google featuring iHeartMedia radio personalities.
Attorney General Letitia James said in a release that in 2019, the two platforms paid people to record endorsements describing their positive experiences with the Google Pixel 4. However, during this time, the phone had yet to be released, and Google refused to send any phones to radio stations before the ads aired. Radio ads for the phone were played 23,577 times in 10 different media markets across the country.
James said the companies knowingly misled the public.
“False advertising is a fraud against the public," James said in a statement. "Companies big and small have a responsibility to be honest about their products and follow the law, there are no exceptions.
Google and iHeartMedia will pay more than $9.4 million in civil penalties, costs and fees. But only $1,524,621 from Google and $56,767 from iHeartMedia will go to the state of New York.