Breaking: Google ordered to pay Barrichello $500,000

Google has been ordered to pay Rubens Barrichello $500,000 in damages because one of its social networking sites hosted fake profiles of the now Williams driver, according to Agence France-Presse.

While I’m not seeing this news all over yet, I do believe AFP is a pretty solid source.

Here’s the story [and yes the link is to Google]:

Google ordered to pay 500,000 dlrs to F1 racer Barrichello

(AFP) – 1 hour ago

SAO PAULO — Internet giant Google has been ordered to pay 500,000 dollars in damages to Formula 1 racer Rubens Barrichello for hosting fake online profiles of him on its social network Orkut.

The decision by the court in Sao Paulo was published Monday in the Brazilian state’s official government gazette.

It said the damages could be raised to 700,000 dollars because of the case was lodged in July 2006, and that Google risked a daily fine of 590 dollars until the pages referring to Barrichello were removed.

Orkut, owned by Google, has a big following in Brazil, though it is losing some ground to a new Portuguese-language version of Facebook that has become available.

The 15th district court of Sao Paulo hearing the civil case determined that Google’s responsibility was proved because it managed the site and established the rules for its use.

Media said there were more than 300 fake profiles under Barrichello’s name on Orkut.

The US Internet company made no immediate comment on the judgement.

Brazilian specialists said the amount of damages was the biggest yet awarded for false web profiles and online libel.

Not sure what to add right now, other than that’s a pretty sizable chunk of change to land in Rubens’ pocket. I don’t recall the details of his contract with Williams, but that surely has to represent a pretty large percentage of it.

We’ll keep our eyes on any follow-ups.

Share on Facebook