Item — HN Reader

For those being banned without explanation, can there not be any sort of legal action taken? IANAL, and I've not gone over their ToS with a fine toothed comb, but I can't believe they can essentially eliminate a primary source of income (for some people/businesses) without an explanation, especially when no ToS violation is known.

Wouldn't this almost be equivalent to being terminated from a job without reason (and isn't that also subject to legal action)?

2 comments

Re: terminating a job, in many states employment can be legally terminated without reason (both by the employer and the employee).

See "at will employment".

Even in cases where you are terminated for no reason, you have recourse for things like unemployment benefits if no valid reason can be provided in court.

If I have a paper company, and you're my only customer, should it be illegal for you to drop me as a supplier? I don't think it should.

I don't believe AdSense actually has contracts with any of their publishers but even that wouldn't make it illegal, just easier for the publisher to win a lawsuit.

You can sue for any reason including this but it's expensive and unlikely to succeed because Google can pretty much out-lawyer anyone. The case would probably get thrown out immediately.