An Arkansas judge on Friday approved the $90 million settlement proposed by Google in a click-fraud class-action lawsuit brought by search marketers claiming the major search engines knowingly charge for clicks that did not come from genuine customers.
After hearing argument from both Google and some of the 70 advertisers with objections against the settlement, Judge Joseph Griffin called it “fair, reasonable and adequate.” The settlement, first proposed in March, will consider advertisers’ fraud claims occurring between January 1, 2002 and last Wednesday.
The settlement will offer up to $60 million in Google AdWords credits for advertisers whose claims are upheld, and $30 million for court costs and legal fees. Some advertisers told the court that the size of the proposed settlement was too low, given that Google has earned almost $16 billion in pay-per-click ad revenue since launching its product in 2001.
About 550 advertisers opted out of the class-action settlement deal, according to the court records. By doing that, they retained the right to pursue their click-fraud actions against Google but can never claim credits as part of the class covered by Friday’s agreement. At least one Google advertiser filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that it should properly be held in a California court. Lawyers for advertiser Joseph Kinney said on Friday that they would appeal the finalized settlement.
“We’re please Judge Griffin has affirmed the settlement as appropriate and fair to advertisers,” said Nicole Wong, associate general counsel for Google, in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to manage invalid clicks effectively.”
Last Wednesday, Google introduced a new online dashboard feature that will tell AdWords advertisers how many and what proportion of their keyword clicks Google has judged to be invalid. The move may provide a partial solution to a common click-fraud complaint that the search engines don’t provide enough visibility into their protective measures.
The Arkansas lawsuit, first brought in February 2005 by Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles of Texarkana, continues against the other defendants, including Yahoo!, AOL and LookSmart.
Early this month, Yahoo! reached a preliminary settlement in another click-fraud class action suit filed in federal court a year ago. Under those terms, Yahoo! Search Marketing sets no upper limit on credits to compensate for past fraud, but limits consideration to cases after January 2004.
As part of that proposed settlement, Yahoo! also offered to give a representative panel of search marketers periodic regular insight into its click-fraud detection and prevention systems.
An Arkansas judge on Friday approved the $90 million settlement proposed by Google in a click-fraud class-action lawsuit brought by search marketers claiming the major search engines knowingly charge for clicks that did not come from genuine customers.
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