Debate whether Google should penalize over paid links all you want. The bottom line remains that Google DOES penalize, when it finds them, and when it wants. And in this case, an online flower shop's SEO firm bought links for them. Penality ensued, and it figures it lost $4 million in sales from 2008-2009. Good news is the lesson taught them to build up other marketing channels. Better news would have been to keep the Google traffic and diversify, as well.