A Russian businessman has filed a lawsuit against Google for announcing the impending ban of cryptocurrency and ICO related advertising. Vladimir Orehov is demanding a two billion ruble settlement from the Russian Google entity for he claims that the ban is depriving him of opportunities in the crypto-world and will directly hit his income.

“Moral Damages”

Orehov says, because of the ban on cryptocurrency and ICO related ads he is missing out on business opportunities and demands that the Russian Google entity compensate him for his losses and lift the ban. Orehov believes that the ban on advertising will make it harder for him to find projects to invest in and harder for him to find investors for his projects alike.

The legal action was triggered by Google’s follow-thru with Facebook and other social media platforms, in banning cryptocurrency related advertising. The announcement was made as an amendment of their bad-ads policy. Though Google is authorised and completely allowed to make such changes, it comes as a large hit to the crypto community because of the lack of avenues for advertising. With Facebook and Google banning crypto advertising, it locks the crypto community out of two of the largest networking sites on the web. The case was registered on 15th of March in Zamoskvorechye District Court.

The entrepreneur says that he invests in a lot of projects has a lot of ideas of his own and blames Google’s ad ban for depriving him of opportunities of funding. He also went on to say that, he was planning to conduct an ICO for the Russian crypto ATM network project, in which he was aiming to raise up to $2 million USD.  

He says that Google’s ban will hamper that target and should be held accountable for the lack of funding that is likely.

The case on its own is now in the beginning stages and it may never reach trial in the event that Google decides to settle. But the demand for the lift of the ban on crypto ads seems unlikely because as a company Google has the right to stop doing something that is not in the interest of their business and since the ban will have literally no effect on Google’s ad revenue, there is no need for them to reverse their position. This lawsuit will be tried in Zamoskvorechye District Court.  

Do you think Orehov has legal premise? How do you think the lawsuit will go? Let us know in the comments section below!

Ramaa Mohan