Google has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of overcharging advertisers by failing to provide promised discounts and charging for clicks outside of the targeted geographic areas. The lawsuit, which has been ongoing for 14 years, was initially filed in March 2011.
The preliminary settlement was submitted on Thursday in federal court in San Jose, California, and is pending judicial approval. The case centers around advertisers who used Google’s AdWords program—now called Google Ads—between January 1, 2004, and December 13, 2012.
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Advertisers claimed Google manipulated its Smart Pricing formula to reduce discounts and violated contracts by distributing ads outside designated areas. They also argued that the company’s actions breached California’s unfair competition law. Despite agreeing to the settlement, Google denied any wrongdoing.
“This case was about ad product features we changed over a decade ago and we’re pleased it’s resolved,” said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs may request up to 33% of the settlement fund as legal fees, along with an additional $4.2 million for expenses. The case involved the production of extensive evidence, including over 910,000 pages of documents and large amounts of click data from Google, with six mediation sessions conducted before reaching the settlement.
The case is titled Cabrera et al v Google LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 11-01263.
