By Gerrit Betz 

Word came today that a lawsuit by some California tour companies against Groupon alleging false advertising will be allowed to proceed in federal court after Groupon tried to have the case dismissed.

For those of you looking for more detail, here’s the full complaint.  I’ll cherry-pick one example: Groupon bought up Google AdWords for things like "Alcatraz Tours" and then embellished them with text like "do Alcatraz at 50-90% off!" But according to the tour groups, if you clicked hoping to fulfill your dream of doing Alcatraz at 90% off, you would be met instead with an offer for acting lessons. 

Well. Sooner or later, a court will decide whether this was a Bait & Switch tactic from a legal perspective.  But can we all agree upfront that this shotgun approach is a bad business strategy? By inviting customers where there’s nothing for them, Groupon is likely to turn more people off than it turns into budding actors.