
Google AdSense Class Action Lawsuit - gromy
http://www.hbsslaw.com/cases-and-investigations/cases/Google-AdSense
======
sharkweek
Two notes:

First: This was bound to happen eventually - Google can't keep hiding behind
the "we don't want to explain it to you because then others would exploit it"
excuse for not reasoning out why they have cancelled an account. They just
need better immediate fraud detection baked in (unfortunately a lot of
unmitigated and spammy adsense accounts can be very lucrative in the short
term).

Second: Good god it will be interesting to see who comes forth in this
lawsuit. I have a few Adsense sites so I keep my ear to the ground in the
forums. The people that whine about being shut down are most commonly 1)
running some blatantly spammy sites or 2) won't show their site (so my
assumption immediately jumps to them being spammy or doing something to game
clicks (menu manipulation, adsense links that look like navigation, popups
over ads, etc). Sure, there are exceptions, and I expect that will be the main
plaintiff here, but it'll be interesting to see if any of the spam folks try
to sneak in there.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I think this is an understatement, if it gets certified it should be
_fascinating_ :-). When Blekko crawls the web when we find hundreds or
thousands of different web sites using the same AdSense ID its a pretty good
sign that the content will not be useful.

~~~
whoismua
Chuck, the problem--and IMO it's legit--is that Google allows you sign up, you
earn some money and then for no explained reason you lose all of it as they
close they your account. Now Google could screen all sites first (not likely)
or pay the money earned till banning day. Sure it's written on the TOS, but
doesn't seem fair and maybe it's illegal.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Oh I totally agree, there is an onus on them to be more transparent about what
they are doing. The scale is what I find amazing. I don't doubt that clever
spammers will sign up a couple of million AdSense accounts over a weekend, and
try to pull some click fraud pennies out of them. It is just too tempting a
target for "free" money. If you recall there was an event where Google would
deposit a small amount of money in an account, and you had to verify the
amount to "prove" you owned the account, and some smart chap started creating
thousands of bank accounts and accounts and when the pennies got deposited
withdrawing them and closing the accounts. I believe it was Brad Templeton who
said "Give me a way to steal a penny over the Internet and I'll show you how
to make money fast."

That is the challenge I see Google facing, on the one hand AdSense is a thing,
on the other its prone to fraud.

~~~
whoismua
_The scale is what I find amazing....That is the challenge I see Google
facing, on the one hand AdSense is a thing, on the other its prone to fraud._

I don't really feel sorry for Google at all. They are making $10 to $12
BILLION a year in profit, even after paying amazing salaries, benefits and
spending money on a lot of unrelated stuff. So they can hire, 100, 100 or
10,000 new employees to screen better and to reduce false positives. Google is
used to profiting from the web while having no responsibility (at least the
new Google,) but now no one is buying their shtick. Soon or later the algo
changes that shift traffic from other sites to Google and from small sites to
larger sites (likely advertisers) will be scrutinized as well.

------
nivla
I use adsense and let me say sadly there isn't a better alternative to it, its
simply the best paying ad network out there. However it is also the only
business related service that puts me into constant state of stress.

Here is my comment reposted from an early discussion regarding the adsense
that got flagged off the frontpage[1]:

I am not sure about the claims made on the post but there was something else
that caught my eye a while back. I registered for Adsense when starting a
side-project. I tried my best to follow all the requirements such as only 3
block of ads per page, no self clicking even if the ad was relevant to you
etc. Since it was relatively new, it din't have much traffic. Then it started
booming but it wasn't predictable by any manner, one day it would get featured
on Reddit and then the traffic dies down, the next week it will another wave
because it got featured in some popular blog, so on. However, despite the
traffic being not predictable, the percentage of invalid clicks judged by
Google remained the same. i.e. say your account shows up the earnings as $1200
but the check gets issued to you for around $1175, next month if you made
$1500, your check will be for $1468. The reason Google claimed for this
difference was the final audit that looks for invalid clicks right before a
check gets issued. I thought it was crazy that I could easily predict what I
would be actually getting instead of what is shown to be earned, moreover my
super ability to predict invalid clicks. So I decided to keep a log of the
difference for ~ a year, and what do you know, the difference in final audit
was almost always the same percentage despite huge variations in traffic. I am
happy to post the log but I will be breaking one of the adsense rules of
revealing your earnings and thus risk losing my account. Anyways I am not
bothered by it anymore, I just learned to write off the difference as expense
and/or consider it as "protection money" that needs to paid. Too bad there
aren't any good alternatives. Adsense is by far the best paying ad-network but
if it had less shady tactics and better support I would have definitely put it
on my recommendation list.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976)

------
obisw4n
I really hope this comes to full light. I am an honest Adsense publisher since
2010 and got completely ripped off for $18,000. They waited until last day
before payout as well, so all the traffic up until then for almost 2 full
months was just gone. No answers from Google at all, just corporate firewall.
They shouldn't be allowed to do this to so many people.

------
nthitz
Context: [http://pastebin.com/qh6Tta3h](http://pastebin.com/qh6Tta3h)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976)

------
programminggeek
Welp, some lawyers are gonna get rich, the people who lost money will get a
check for $2.

Justice.

~~~
rayiner
Alternatively, Google keeps all the money it (allegedly) collected improperly,
but hey at least no lawyers get rich.

~~~
sharkweek
Nah, Google refunds fraudulent ad money

~~~
rayiner
I'm not saying anything about the merits of the suit. The complaint alleges
that Google doesn't consistently refund the money.

------
verroq
Possibly related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976)

------
e15ctr0n
Is this lawsuit related to the anonymous disclosures made last month by a
supposedly ex-Google employee?

------
notoph
I haven't been cancelled, but Google and rip-off seem to go together for me.
My CTR, CPC, and RPM would all mysteriously drop every time I raised a
question or complaint. Earlier this year, after I was gaining traction with my
complaints, my Google search impressions suddenly dropped by 80% in 2 days,
and my revenue dropped from a high of over $1,200/mo in Q4 2013 to a rate of
barely $300/mo now. I'm not a class member, but Google has no class at all.

------
fireworks10
Is there any precedent for ToS agreements not being allowed to be "one-sided"
as Google AdSense's ToS is claimed to be in this lawsuit? Or more
specifically, any previous cases regarding the legality of "We can close your
account for any reason & keep your account's funds" clauses?

------
hatelibs
A few things must be noted concerning this lawsuit:

1\. This is the second class action attempt launched against Google by this
trial-lawyer outfit: [http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/05/02/class-action-
lawsuit...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/05/02/class-action-lawsuit-
filed-against-google-because-phones-are-too-expensive-and-also-search-and-
monopolies-and-stuff/)

2\. This Steve Berman guy behind the suit was a Microsoft lawyer, it's notable
becase another Microsoft lawyer tried and failed to sue Google on ad/antitrust
grounds a few years back:
[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110901/14553415771/court...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110901/14553415771/court-
tosses-out-ridiculous-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google.shtml)

3\. Ultimately a judge would have to decide if this ever goes forward but
reading the the two fillings for the two separate lawsuits, both are no more
that just PR statements with news clippings.

The purpose here is likely an attempt at obtaining documents via discovery,
doubtful it goes that far, it's an obvious money-grub scheme.

~~~
IBM
He wasn't just their trial lawyer though.

From Wikipedia:

Berman helped found his namesake firm in 1993. He was lead attorney in
individual and class action cases against Enron, Washington Public Power
Supply System, Purdue Pharma (over OxyContin), Exxon (with respect to the
Exxon Valdez oil spill), Boeing, Intel (over alleged monopoly practices),
Michael Milken, the Rio Tinto mining company (with respect to human rights
violations and environmental destruction in New Guinea),[3] and VISA and
MasterCard (in which he achieved a $3 billion settlement). He was also
instrumental in the state attorneys general’s litigation against the Liggett
Group and subsequent $216 billion settlement, against the tobacco industry,
serving as special assistant to the various states. He was lead counsel for
Microsoft during part of its defense against antitrust claims.[4]

~~~
hatelibs
A career of spray and pray lawsuits.

~~~
IBM
It's not really spray and pray if their firm is focused on this. They
certainly seem accomplished.

> Our work includes representing consumers, municipalities and other groups in
> cases against unscrupulous corporations or individuals who attempt to
> subvert principles of fairness and equity in the quest for ill-gotten
> profits. We also work to protect the interests of intellectual property
> owners, whistleblowers and those seeking enforcement of human-rights laws.

>Hagens Berman was founded in 1993 by attorneys Carl Hagens and Steve Berman,
with the goal of representing plaintiffs in class actions and multi-party,
large-scale complex litigation. We have stayed true to that purpose and along
the way have recovered billions of dollars for our clients, while winning the
praise of judges and the accolades, and awards of our peers.

