“Reed had inadvertently stumbled into a cottage industry of sites that charge high premiums for what are otherwise free or inexpensive government services.”
The IRS hands out employer ID numbers for free. Google sold the top spot to a site that charged $250 for one. Another charged $59.03 for a USPS address change that costs $1.05. Google’s policy bans these ads. Google pulled them only after The Markup sent the list, and kept the money.