Yahoo agreed to compensate advertisers for click fraud dating back to January 2004 as part of a settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit, the search company said on Wednesday. Click fraud happens when people click online advertisements with the intent of generating a charge for the advertisers. Online advertisers often pay for their advertisements based on how many times users click on the ad.Yahoo has offered to allow advertisers to submit click fraud claims for incidents occurring since January 2004. A retired federal judge will oversee Yahoo’s investigations, which will determine if credit is due to the advertiser. If Yahoo determines there was fraud and that the advertiser hasn’t already been refunded, it will issue a full credit to the advertiser. Yahoo did not reveal how much money it expects to pay back. Yahoo runs technology it developed called the Clickthrough Protection system, aimed at identifying click fraud and removing suspicious clicks so as not to bill advertisers for them. The deal settles a suit initiated by Checkmate Strategic Group against Yahoo last year. Yahoo also agreed to several other initiatives aimed at combating click fraud in the future. It will create a new position of traffic quality advocate, responsible for representing advertisers and their concerns about click fraud within Yahoo. Yahoo will also host an annual event where it will invite a panel of advertisers to its headquarters to review Yahoo’s Clickthrough Protection system and offer feedback to Yahoo about how it can be improved. Yahoo also said it will create a traffic quality resource center that will offer more information to advertisers about traffic quality issues and work with a third party to create an industry-wide effort to combat click fraud.-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service (Dublin Bureau)Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content BrandPost How Infosys and Tennis Australia are harnessing technology for good By Veronica Lew Mar 26, 2023 6 mins Infosys BrandPost Retail innovation playbook: Fast, economical transformation on Microsoft Cloud For retailers, tight integration of data and systems is the antidote to a challenging economy. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 3 mins Retail Industry Digital Transformation BrandPost How retailers are empowering business transformation with TCS and Microsoft Cloud AI-powered omnichannel integration and a strong, secure digital core lets retailers innovate across four primary areas while staying compliant, maintaining security and preventing fraud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 4 mins Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to Build ROI from Cloud Migration This whitepaper and webcast can help you calculate the ROI and create a business case for modernizing your legacy applications to the Microsoft Cloud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe