Adsense Class Action Settlement

[miketpowell]

http://www.adsensepublishersettlement.com/

So I just got an email about this as Google closed my account without warning with about $115,000 sometime in 2014. Just days prior I had been making optimization adjustments to the site per suggestions of an Adsense rep that was working with us. Then they closed my account and refused to talk about it without warning or giving a reason besides "violation". A pretty common story for working with Google.

Well seems someone took them to court and Google opted to settle. The total amount in the settlement is $11,000,000 for all publishers from 2010 until now. I imagine with how many people Google did this to my share will not be anywhere close to the $115,000 they stole from me.

So I can either join the suit and probably get my few thousand or hire a lawyer and fight for my own settlement now that a clear path has been laid by the other law firm on the laws Google violated. Have no idea how that might go but doing some research.

Anyone else part of this? Thoughts?

 

[eliquid]

I haven't received anything myself yet.

But I would think Google could drag this out for a long time, way beyond $115k cost wise.

Sure you could win in the end and get it all back potentially, but I would find out the realistic timeframe for winning something like that and the cost to fight it in case you lost.

I'd start there, but I'd say its a tough choice.

I had $40k owed to me from an affiliate network outside the US. I weighed the options of an international lawsuit and the time needed/cost if I lost. It wasn't worth it to me in the end due to multiple factors.

Your's is a lot larger than mine and within the US ( I assume ). But that's a giant of a company to go after.

Hope all ends well though.

 

[Future State]

I agree. If you go after them solo, they'll make sure it costs you more than you'll get back if you win. They don't plan to lose. One loss like that opens the floodgates. It's worth it to them to lose money on one case to save all the money they get otherwise.

It's screwed up that they'll take money from advertisers and not pay publishers for the month they got banned, knowing damn well they don't give that money back to the advertisers (or do they? I doubt it).

I'd join the class action lawsuit, get my $250 check, and go eat a nice steak & wine dinner with the wifey or girlfriend as a surprise for her, then get on with my life.

 

[miketpowell]

So the point of considering it at this time was since they already settled another law firm has basically done the groundwork already. Someone else already spent the 7 figures to a law firm to draw up a 100+ page case of why what Google did is a clear violation of California law for fair business dealing. I never went after them before because of the reasons you both listed, but things changed with this settlement.

At this point, multiple firms would be happy to take the case on contingency because Google can try to make this more expensive, but that will just cost them money now. Google's case here is bad enough that the court would very easily award litigation costs in addition to the settlement amount. This is what I've been told since looking into this.

However, my particular case is no good unfortunately =( the statue of limitations for this law in California is 4 years. I was banned in March 2014 and have not made any legal effort to collect. So my ability to win a case ended just 2 months ago.

So I will just be joining the class action. The fact that no one else got notices about this makes me optimistic I'll get more than $250 since the amounts are based on what Google owed. I'll update this thread on whatever amount it ends up being.

@Future State - I wish I was exciting enough to go spend a $250 windfall but my spending is so incredibly boring and disassociated with income at this point.