Customers suing Alphabet Inc’s Google LLC over its information assortment practices have misplaced their early enchantment to pursue cash damages as a category motion searching for billions of {dollars}. Plaintiffs sued Google in 2020, claiming that Google continued to gather information from customers regardless of their use of personal looking in Chrome’s “Incognito” mode. The lawsuit seeks not less than $5 billion in damages.
The ninth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday rejected the plaintiffs’ bid to enchantment a decrease court docket resolution final 12 months that denied class-action standing for cash damages claims in opposition to Google.
The plaintiffs had sought an appeals court docket listening to on the problem mid-case and might nonetheless search to revive their cash damages claims when there’s a last judgment. A jury trial is about for November.
The category-action standing would imply the plaintiffs may pursue large-scale claims in opposition to Google as a bunch, versus submitting particular person claims for financial damages. The damages class would come with not less than “tens of thousands and thousands” of Google browser customers, court docket filings point out.
The plaintiffs, whose attorneys embrace veteran litigator David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner, had argued within the ninth Circuit that the decrease court docket ruling in December denying class certification on damages “sounds the ‘loss of life knell’ for a lot of customers’ damages claims who lack the means to individually litigate this case.”
Google’s attorneys at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan had requested the ninth Circuit to not enable the rapid enchantment and as an alternative wait to listen to from the events after a last order.
Google has denied that it deceived anybody over non-public looking, saying its Chrome browser customers consented to the corporate’s information assortment.
A spokesperson for Google declined to touch upon Wednesday’s resolution.
Though the choice means the plaintiffs can not search financial damages as a category, the decrease court docket had licensed two different courses that may search different aid from Google, together with curbing sure information assortment practices.
Boies and one other plaintiffs’ lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a message on Thursday searching for remark.
The case is Brown et al v. Google LLC, ninth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals, No. 22-80147.
For plaintiffs: David Boies and Mark Mao of Boies Schiller Flexner; Invoice Carmody of Susman Godfrey; and John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan
For defendant: Andrew Schapiro, Diane Doolittle and Stephen Broome of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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