Google to pay $100 million to settle ad click lawsuit

Google has agreed to a $100 million settlement to resolve a long-running class action lawsuit that accused the company of improperly charging advertisers for clicks on ads displayed outside their selected geographic targets.

The settlement, filed in a California court on March 27, still requires judicial approval before it can be finalized, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

The lawsuit, which was first filed in 2011, focused on Google AdWords (now known as Google Ads) and alleged that the tech giant misled advertisers by failing to accurately limit ad placements to designated locations. The plaintiffs argued that this violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and claimed Google did not uphold its promise to provide “Smart Pricing” discounts to advertisers.

In response to the settlement, Google spokesperson José Castañeda stated: “This case was about ad product features we changed over a decade ago and we’re pleased it’s resolved.”

The agreement follows an extensive discovery process, during which the plaintiffs’ counsel reviewed over 910,000 pages of documents and analyzed multiple terabytes of click data from Google. The class includes advertisers who used Google AdWords between June 1, 2009, and December 13, 2012.

While this settlement resolves one legal battle, Google still faces major antitrust challenges in the U.S. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued the company over its alleged monopoly in the advertising technology sector, and a separate federal lawsuit could potentially force Google to sell its Chrome browser.

By Vugar Khalilov