US Judge Rejects $2.36bn Penalty Bid Against Google

News Desk

San Francisco: A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday rejected a request by consumers seeking more than $2 billion in penalties against Alphabet’s Google over its past collection of user data from individuals who had turned off a key privacy setting.

Chief US District Judge Richard Seeborg denied the plaintiffs’ request to order Google to disgorge $2.36 billion in alleged profits and to impose restrictions on certain advertising-related data practices.

The ruling follows a jury verdict in September that found Google liable for secretly collecting app activity data from millions of users who had disabled a tracking feature. While the jury awarded approximately $425 million in damages to the class action plaintiffs, far below the $31 billion they had sought,  it also issued an advisory verdict recommending against disgorgement.

Google had urged the court not to impose additional penalties beyond the jury award. On Friday, Seeborg agreed, ruling that the consumers had failed to demonstrate an entitlement to disgorgement and that their estimate of Google’s profits was “insufficiently supported.”

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The judge also rejected the plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction, saying they had not shown any “prospective, irreparable harm” that would justify barring Google from continuing its data collection practices.

Seeborg further denied Google’s bid to decertify the class action, which represents about 98 million users and 174 million devices.

In court filings, the plaintiffs argued they were entitled to Google’s alleged ill-gotten gains and claimed the company had not changed its privacy disclosures or data collection practices despite the jury verdict.

Google countered that an order restricting its ability to collect account-related data would “cripple” an analytics service relied upon by millions of app developers.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. David Boies, a lead attorney for the consumers, said they welcomed the ruling insofar as it confirmed the jury’s verdict. Google has denied any wrongdoing and said it plans to appeal the September decision.