One of the mysteries of how adsense works. It could be that the level of abuse has not yet reached a threshold (to be determined by adsense) where action is required, or it could be that the Italian market works differently than other countries. It could also be that the revenue being earned is making adsense (g) happy and they are looking the other way. These are speculations and should be taken as such!

Could be the site is using non-standard compliant code, so your browser is displaying the mark-up oddly.

It doesn't do much good to worry about other sites breaking rules. All I know is if I broke the rules, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night and I'd get caught.

It is possible that these sites make very little revenue so are not noticed.

It could be that sites in some languages or countries are not as closely watched.

If it is a large site, it may have an agreement with Google that lets it do that.

They maybe cloaking or geo targetting so people at Google seems something different.

Too many possibilities, it is not worth worrying about.

To: It is possible that these sites make very little revenue so are not noticed.

I think it's not true.

My friend have a site with ~50 000 FB fans, and occasionally shared posts on Facebook, made 200-500 euros per month with Goole Adsense. But he got banned twice. First time because of copyrighted and thin content (lots of Youtube videos) and second time (he made a new site) because of his mobile banner (300x250) was above the fold.

Another similar sites, which posting Facebook every day, have 5-8 adsense units on the page, even the times, when only 3 ads units per page was allowed (now unlimited because of mobiles). Some of their ad units are above the fold, sidebars adsense units are sticky and on smaller screens, ads are barely seen because most of the ads are hidden behing the screen. Also popup ads from different networks which made site very-very spammy.

So they are violating Adsense rules in many perspective but still no warnings or nothing. Probably making 2-3K+ every month per site and Google do not make any action. These sites running since early 2014, so for now ~ 3 years and nothing happened.

Conclusion is - probably Google just can't detect any abuse or violation because there are millions and millions webpages with adsense in the internet. Yes Google have automatic detection, but probably its not so straightforward as people think.

Probably there are lots of variables like your previous history, websites you have (analytics), are you flagged before on any Google product, your webpage quality etc, ad units performance (too high CTR or high impression/low ctr), traffic, revenue etc. and if something or many things look abnormal, it will trigger manual review.

Also look Google's Adsense kitchen side. They even can't detect spam ads what constantly appear in their ads inventory and this for a years. So it's much-much more harder to detect sites which violating the Adsense rules, especially these days, when you may use so many ad units on the pages as you wish.

This is an exemple of what i told you [s29.postimg.org...]
In this screenshot I erased the information that could identify the site.
What do you think? These sites are BIG sites not small ones.

I agree there is some kind of IRS-like flagging system. Publishers with previous flags or notices are more likely to receive future flagging. And there must be certain factors like IP, accounts, earning, screenshot etc. (who knows)

I have a cluster of ~5 to 10 sites that I have created around the same period 2~3 years back before the mobile screen view requirement with 300x250 above the fold. Their traffic is so low that I have never revisited or updated them for the past 2 years. So even when adsense updated their policy, I didn't think it made sense for me to fix sites that earn $0~$0.10 a day at most. They serve roughly 5~100 pageviews a day. To be honest, I do not keep track of these weakest holdings because the traffic is so low and negligible.

All of the outdated sites were flagged in succession with the span of 3 month, with the warning given roughly 1~2 weeks apart. And for some sites, false flags were given for a few sites that I actually went and updated (since some sites' traffic warranted my time. I actually responded saying...hey there is nothing to be fixed.

So maybe it's a combination of automatic review and manual review, automatic system flags sites, and manual reviewers give the final nod. And whomever reviewed my sites were being trigger happy and accidentally selected sites that were compliant.

But nevertheless, I am honest and not being tricky or shady about my practices. All of my new sites and sites with decent traffic are all compliant. And I fix the old sites whenever notices were given within 24 hours. So my account is generally in good standing I believe.

@skynet, and based on screenshot they operate within adsense guildlines at first glance. Albeit gray area due to multiple ads shown on same screen, but they are small units. So it's really the reviewer's judgement call.

this is just one website, i have full list and all operate within adsense policy. This is so sad. I work so hard to optimize everything in my side, respect all guidelines, make blog better and better rich of content and respect everything "user first".
Sad World!

Premium publishers are allowed to exceed 3 ad units per page. If it is not a Premium publisher it is also possible that you can see AdSense ads running from other Ad Networks. We can speculate on why and how they get away with it, but it is between the publisher and Google. If they are violating the guidelines, Google has a long history of banning accounts and it may be here today, gone tomorrow.

There have been discussions about this in the past, here are a few examples:
Can you put up more than 3 ads per page? [webmasterworld.com] (05/13)

Adsense 3 ads limit lifted? [webmasterworld.com] (09/16)

This might be pretty obvious but are you checking the source code for the AdSense tags or just concluding based on the way the ad looks?

Also, anyone could run more than 3+ AdSense ads in theory if they use DFP and had at least one other network competing on the 4th ad unit and higher. It has been like that forever.

@Child Please @not2easy: few months ago, Adsense removed 3 units per page limit. Now you are allowed use as many ad units as you wish.

@ranka: yes, it was discussed in that thread linked to above from September of last year.

I don't know how Google works exactly, but I can say for a fact, they are very LAX. And in the old days, Google really stood up for what was right, or at least they appeared to.

Now, they ignore spammy sites and actually continue helping them flourish (and prosper).

I have so many examples to show, but it's pointless. If I broke the rules I know I get punished. Even if I don't break the rules, sometimes I still get punished.

That is how it is.

I've been running 4-6 ad units per page since about 2012 and Google told me it was okay to do so as long as it was through DFP...so thats why I asked. If they used DFP, they would be compliant.