Internet company Google has agreed to pay a fine of $500 million for displaying adverts from Canadian pharmacies aimed at US customers in its AdWords service.
The fine covers Google's revenues from the adverts as well as money generated by the drugs' sales. Both prescription and non-prescription drugs were advertised.
The company had already banned the advertising of drugs in the US by Canadian pharmacies, but the fine applied to earlier activity. As well as accepting the ads, the Department of Justice says that Google optimised them and assisted with the placing.
The payment of the fine settles a DoJ investigation and ensures Google will not face criminal charges.