In March, Google agreed to up to $90 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it overcharged thousands of advertisers who paid for bogus sales referrals generated through click fraud.
But plaintiffs now contend that Google hasn’t done enough to stop click fraud, which drives up advertising bills by falsely indicating the number of web users who have clicked on an Internet ad to seek more information about a product.
Steve Malouf, who represents many of the plaintiffs, said that Google has failed “to exercise reasonable efforts to filter invalid clicks.”
Fifty-one plaintiffs have raised objections, saying the deal unfairly shifts to them the burden of proving their losses and that they don’t have the resources to easily pursue their claims.
A judge will decide on confirming the proposed settlement after oral arguments continuing through Tuesday.
With the proposed settlement, no advertiser will receive cash. But they will receive $60 million distributed as Google advertising credits; plaintiff attorneys will receive $30 million.
Google said the settlement is fair, though “heavily disputed.”
“Those who object to the amount of the settlement merely assume that undetected click fraud is pervasive, and that they could prove this at trial,” a court filing said. “But Google contends that class members could never prove such a claim, because Google aggressively roots out click fraud, using highly sophisticated techniques and processes, and minimizes any impact it has on advertisers.”
The class-action lawsuit was filed by Arkansas-based Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles and Caulfield Investigations, which said Google collected fees for pay-for-click advertising, which were not actually generated by consumers clicking on the search engine sites to get to Lane’s Gifts.
Through the years, Google has remained consistent with its statement that click fraud is minuscule. Court documents appear to support that. The $90 million translates into less than 1 percent of Google’s $11.2 billion in revenue since 2002.
Google has posted details about the proposed settlement here.