Google AdWords Class Action Lawsuit Dies in Court

Google has won another victory in its legal battle over its AdWords keyword advertising program. A California federal judge has refused to certify a class action lawsuit claiming the search giant engaged in deceptive and unfair advertising about the AdWord program.

According to the 2008 class action lawsuit, Google AdWords improperly charged advertisers for ads placed on low-quality “garbage sites” such as parked domain and error-page websites.

“All AdWords customers were given the choice of advertising in Google’s search or content networks, yet Google never disclosed that regardless of which network they chose, Google would place their ads on parked domains or error pages,” according to the Google AdWords class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit also claimed Google “purposefully published misleading AdSense policies which prohibited publishers from putting ads on pages lacking content.”

Last month, however, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila declined to certify the Google AdWords class action lawsuit, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes.

 

Judge Davila said the Plaintiffs did not have enough in common to represent a class because each of their claims are different in that each Plaintiff paid a different amount for their advertising.

“While plaintiffs present a hypothetical ‘but for’ price for advertising on parked domains and error pages absent Google’s alleged ‘deception,’ they overlook the reality of how advertising costs are actually determined in the AdWords system,” Davila wrote in his 25-page decision. “Where, as here, proof of restitution due each class member cannot be proved with relative ease, the court finds good reason to deny class certification.”

This is the latest win for Google, which has been hit with several class action lawsuits over its AdWords program. In October, a Texas federal judge refused to certify two classes of advertisers who filed separate complaints in 2009, claiming that Google sold search terms that included registered trademarks to advertisers who were not affiliated with or sponsored by the trademark holder.

The 2008 case is In re: Google AdWords Litigation, Case No. 5:08-cv-03369, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.