Google has banned payday lender ads from its website after it deemed the loans a "dangerous product" on par with guns, tobacco and explosives, reports The Guardian.
Consumers will still be able to search and find payday lenders through the Google engine, however the site's sidebar ads will no longer feature marketing from the payday lending industry.
Payday lenders give out small, short-term loans with extremely high interest rates and typically target vulnerable, low-income communities. Because of extreme interest rates, those who take out the loans often end up entrenched in debt. A typical two-week payday loan has an annual percentage rate of nearly 400 percent, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Some payday lenders explicitly target cash-strapped patients faced with unaffordable medical expenses. Time featured the story of a Kansas City man who took out five payday loans for a total of $2,500 to pay medical expenses. In the five years it took him to pay of the debt, the man incurred $50,000 in interest payments.
The payday loan industry is valued at $46 billion, according to The Guardian.
Google's ban takes effect July 13.
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