Google Sued (Again!) for Overcharging Advertisers

CLRB Hanson Industries LLC v. Google, Inc., Case No. 1-05-CV-046409 (Cal. Superior Ct. complaint filed August 3, 2005).

Advertisers, including radio personality Howard Stern, have filed a new class-action lawsuit against Google for overcharging in AdWords. This represents the third such lawsuit brought against Google, following on the lawsuits led by Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles and Click Defense. While those two related to “click fraud” (where Google allegedly charged advertisers for insincere clicks), in this case the plaintiffs are alleging that Google did not honor daily spending limits set by the advertisers.

Specifically, the complaint alleges that Google ignores daily limits and, instead, creates a monthly limit based on the aggregate of the month’s daily limits. If true, this would be problematic for Google because it promised that advertisers could set daily limits, and a monthly limit would not be the same thing. Google could simply give advertisers only the option of setting a monthly limit (instead of daily limits) if that’s how Google codes its software.

Unfortunately, we don’t have too much information about this lawsuit, so we’ll be watching for more details.