EQUTE — Google and European advertising regulator Advertising Standards Authority are going into business to investigate advertising complaints. ASA said that without the Google funding, it wouldn’t have the resources to adequately regulate digital media from viral videos to banner ads and e-mail marketing.

Google said it was only happy to help.

Matt Brittin, Google’s UK managing director, told the Telegraph that, “if people have a complaint about a claim made on a website it’s important that it is properly investigated. We support the ASA’s aims of providing consumer protection and are happy to help get this up and running for the benefit of UK consumers and businesses.”

One lawyer says the funding raises some ethical questions and competition questions inside of Europe, and for good reason.

Jo Farmer, a partner at law firm Lewis Silkin, told the Telegraph that, “Consumer groups will be delighted that the ASA is looking to close down this gap in their regulatory regime. But, important questions remain — such as what is going to happen to websites that are hosted outside of the UK but are aimed at UK consumers? Will the ASA be looking to its funding partner Google to impose any additional penalties for non-compliance, such as blacklisting offenders from Google’s search pages?”

The changes are scheduled to go into effect in the second half of 2010, but more announcements form ASA and Google will likely come before then .