ABTA confirms existence of Google action group

Industry trade body ABTA is one of the organisations which attended a secret meeting of leading figures from across the travel industry today to discuss potential legal action against Google.

ABTA confirmed late last week that Simon Bunce, head of legal for ABTA, attended the meeting at a law firm in London, which also included representatives from other leading consumer brands outside of travel.

This is the first official recognition from any organisation that the meeting took place.

Earlier today Travolution revealed the existence of a group containing a number of major brands which was formed to evaluate whether a joint legal action can be taken against Google over controversial changes to its advertising trademark policy.

An ABTA spokesman would not comment on details surrounding its decision to become involved in the group.

ABTA was reported in April to be considering whether to add a ban on bidding on company brand names into its Code of Conduct.

Comments

Related Articles

• Google keyword switch to cost big travel brands ‘millions’
• Travel brands mull informal pacts to battle Google trademark shift
• Lastminute.com considers legal position over Google trademark move
• Teletext threatens rivals over trademark bidding
• Policy change is legally sound - Google
• Costs soar for brand bidding companies
• Teletext in legal move against Directline over trademarks on Google
• Travel brands unite with other retailers in legal threat against Google
• The Google brand name policy switch