Supreme Court Won’t Hear Google’s Appeal in AdWords Class Action

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Google Inc.’s appeal of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that revives a class action lawsuit filed by advertisers who say Google AdWords caused them to pay for ads on non-functional websites.

The Google AdWords class action lawsuit was initially filed in 2008 and alleges AdWords misled advertisers about where their advertisements were placed online.

The plaintiffs claim Google sometimes put their ads on third-party websites even when the customer did not bid for ads on these sites.

Further, they claim that sometimes their ads were posted on error pages and undeveloped websites. According to the AdWords class action lawsuit, Google should have disclosed that ads would appear on these types of pages.

In 2012, a federal judge ruled that the case should not proceed as a class action lawsuit because each Class Member would receive different damages based on the different amounts they paid for the ads in question.

The 9th Circuit reversed the decision and allowed the Google AdWords class action lawsuit to proceed.

Google filed a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court on March 1, asking the high court to review the 9th Circuit’s decision because it will deepen a circuit split regarding individual damage calculations. According to Google, four other circuits have held that damages in class action lawsuits cannot be calculated by using an “abstract analysis of averages.”

By allowing individual damage calculations in this case, Google says the 9th Circuit is encouraging plaintiffs from across the nation to file class action lawsuits in the circuit.

“As long as the decision … is permitted to stand, plaintiffs across the country will elect to file their putative class actions in the Ninth Circuit, where they know they can satisfy the predominance requirement regardless of the individual damages they seek,” Google argues.

Further, the Supreme Court has already ruled in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes that cases should not be certified as class action lawsuits when the putative Class Members do not have enough in common and would be better handled individually based on their individual facts, Google points out.

“’Trial by formula’ forecloses individual defenses and sets damages for plaintiffs at amounts divorced from their particular circumstances, thereby giving plaintiffs greater substantive rights than they would have in individual proceedings,” Google argues.

The Google class action lawsuit covers advertising run through AdWords between 2004 and 2008. The plaintiffs claim that Google did not allow advertisers to opt out of advertising on error pages and undeveloped websites. They are seeking millions of dollars in damages.

Google has reportedly included some additional disclosures to AdWords advertisers since the class action lawsuit was filed in 2008.

The advertisers are represented by Willem F. Jonckheer, Miranda P. Kolbe, Robert C. Schubert and Noah M. Schubert of Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP.

The Google AdWords Class Action Lawsuit is Pulaski & Middleman LLC, et al. v. Google Inc., Case No. 15-1101, in the Supreme Court of the United States.