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I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question but not sure where else to ask..

I was doing a Google search to check the results of my Software's name which I sell on my website. I found, Google displayed an Ad from Softonic.com for that keyword. And worse, Softonic was linking to a page where they asked users to download their software-installer to download my software and NOT my software! We have neither asked Softonic nor Softonic had informed us regarding that Ad and their installer.

Can someone please tell me if such Ads are allowed by Google Adwords? And does it violate Adwords TOS?

Thanks in advance!

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If your software has no affiliate program then definitely it violates your own software distribution and marketing TOS if there is any. You don't have to worry about adsense or adwords TOS in this case. Even if your software allows such distribution check if they're not bidding on your keywords. You can contact them to take the ads down. If they refuse to do so, let adwords team know about this and they'll remove all the campaigns from softonic for such violation. What softonic is doing here is basically creating a traffic leak for your website and software by bidding on adwords ads and redirecting all the traffic. Ask them to take down ads and software off their repository. CNET, Softonic and many other download repositories are doing this and it is hurting many software developers. You can read more on this issue here and here. It's your software and you have the right to deny such leech services which are hurting your software and brand.

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