> Google has been accused of shutting out competition in mobile searches, and using its market dominance to raise the prices paid by advertisers for their spot on the Google search page, according to the claim. These are then passed on to consumers.
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> Estimated compensation of £7.3bn has been requested for about 65 million UK users over the age of 16, meaning at least £100 per person on average.
Although I think alleging that Google used dominance to raise the prices paid by advertisers is a fair point, it could be a bit of a (legal) stretch to prove that that translates to £100 per adult/adolescent. I wish them luck, mostly in hopes that Google will change their behaviour rather than shrugging and paying the damages.
> The class action is funded by Hereford Litigation, a global commercial litigation funder.
I am a UK user over the age of 16. I did not ask for this to be done in my name. I am not defending Google here, but for-profit litigation by investment funds scares me more than Google does.
It’s not scary, at least not in the United States:*
Litigating class actions is quite expensive. The for-profit nature is by design: it’s the potential for a large fee award that incentivizes class counsel to pursue these claims.
The individual claims are typically too small or speculative for individuals to spend money hiring lawyers of their own. Without this system, there would effectively be very little incentive for companies to refrain from violating large numbers of people in small ways. You might think this is the job of the government, but consider the resources it would take to effectively police every company sticking its hands into every one of the billions of cookie jars that exist. The fact is, governments can’t and don’t pursue most civil violations. Class actions are a kind of “market-based” solution. While imperfect, they do serve an important function.
And of course, you can always opt out if you want to sue on your own (or you just want the company to get away with it?).
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* I don’t know the specifics of class action law in the UK, but I suspect both countries’ laws are undergirded by similar policy motives.
The ridiculous thing is that the Britons didn’t do that but a “litigation fund” filed the lawsuit “on behalf of every U.K. consumer”. I wonder whether the company had asked anybody in the U.K. about their stance on this matter.
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> Estimated compensation of £7.3bn has been requested for about 65 million UK users over the age of 16, meaning at least £100 per person on average.
Although I think alleging that Google used dominance to raise the prices paid by advertisers is a fair point, it could be a bit of a (legal) stretch to prove that that translates to £100 per adult/adolescent. I wish them luck, mostly in hopes that Google will change their behaviour rather than shrugging and paying the damages.