Google must start taking responsibility for the adverts that it profits from

The search company dominates online advertising but is allowed to serve up adverts that would see a local newspaper liable to prosecution, writes Ben Chapman

Advertising is the source of most of Google’s vast revenues, but it takes little responsibility for the content of those ads (AFP/Getty)

Google is under ever greater pressure to stop publishing adverts for financial scams but it has little incentive to act until new laws force it to do so.

The company has been warned that as many as 90 per cent of ads it is displaying for ISA and bond-related search terms are questionable.

It would be an alarming statistic at any time, but a year on from the London Capital and Finance scandal it is particularly shocking.