• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, June 16, 2009 12:15 PM

Microsoft filed its first ever lawsuit targeting click fraud this week, and more are expected. The software giant claims that the defendants drained the ad budgets of rivals on Microsoft's adCenter network by bombarding rival ads with clicks so that their own ads could get higher play in results.

Microsoft says in its complaint that it ended up having to provide legitimate advertisers with $1.5 million in ad credits to compensate them for the defendants' actions. The company is asking for an injunction as well as more than $750,000 in compensatory damages. A Microsoft attorney tells the Times that the company has "decided to become more active in the commercial fraud area on the enforcement side... The theory is you can change the economics around crime or fraud by making it more expensive."

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