Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account

felix65

just got this email,, whats this all about?????????


Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account

This court-ordered notice may affect your legal rights. Please read it carefully. If you purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present, you are a class member in a class-action lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice is to inform you of the Court’s certification of a class; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement. Please read the attached notice.



You can get more information at: https://www.clicksettlement.com.



https://www.clicksettlement.com

Astaroth

It is spam - and most likely ultimately a fraud/ phishing type scam, I am sure when the "claim form" goes online they will be asking for lots of personal details

Problems with it:
1) Legal termonology is wrong
2) They say settlement is a 50% discount on all future purchases - damages would be based on historic loss not future
3) States google has agreed $90m settlement and yet this hasnt hit the papers?
4) States both sides have agreed settlement and yet it has to go back to court? Not an expert on USA law but it sounds odd to me.

lee634

have you passed this onto google

Doublespresso

its deffo a phishing scam.

Debt_Free_Chick

Well, there certainly was an action that Google settled, according to this article

And clicksettlement.com was registered by Gilardi & Co. who seem to be US lawyers specialising in class action suits (but the website won't load at the moment).

Does it affect you? Possibly if you paid for Google advertising but failed to get reimbursed for invalid clicks. AIUI, Google charges the advertiser on a "per click" basis, but you don't pay for invalid clicks.

There's nothing on the Click Settlement website at the moment apart from some FAQs. If you want to register to part of the claim, you have to revisit the site after June 19 - so if this is a scam, expect the site to be closed down before then.

It's not a phishing scam - at least, not at the moment - as you are not required to enter information on the site. You are right to be cautious, but I don't think there's anything to worry about at the moment.

Debt_Free_Chick

Astaroth wrote:

2) They say settlement is a 50% discount on all future purchases - damages would be based on historic loss not future

I think the reason for the settlement in this way is that both sides have agreed on a settlement - $90m. So, irrespective of the actual damages suffered by any one claimant, this amount is simply going to be divied up amongst all of them.

3) States google has agreed $90m settlement and yet this hasnt hit the papers?

Don't know about the papers, but if you Google for Google settle click fraud suit, you'll find plenty.

4) States both sides have agreed settlement and yet it has to go back to court? Not an expert on USA law but it sounds odd to me.

Because the agreement is to an out of court settlement, but the Court gets the chance to rule on whether or not this is fair to all the claimants. Otherwise, an out of court settlement could be agreed for a wholly derisory amount.

Anyone who is a claimant can either claim the credits (assuming the Court agree the settlement) or opt out, which gives them a chance to take their own legal action.

Regards

Astaroth

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

I think the reason for the settlement in this way is that both sides have agreed on a settlement - $90m. So, irrespective of the actual damages suffered by any one claimant, this amount is simply going to be divied up amongst all of them.

It actually states that the 50% of future costs is how it will be settled and the $90m is Googles reserve for paying this. If you sue someone for losses you get money that you have lost back and there may be an additional injunction to force the company to do something in the future... Also there is no end date for the discount so $90m would never be a suitable reserve for all the advertisers of the last 5 years to get the rest of their advertisement at half price for life.

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Don't know about the papers, but if you Google for Google settle click fraud suit, you'll find plenty.

I could be wrong - it doesnt add up to me - I would be exceptionally surprised if a settlement of this size against a blue chip company that is forcing them to basically 1/2 their price for life (according to the site) hasnt hit the financial sections of the papers if not the main news sections.

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Because the agreement is to an out of court settlement, but the Court gets the chance to rule on whether or not this is fair to all the claimants. Otherwise, an out of court settlement could be agreed for a wholly derisory amount.

But that is the idea of an out of court settlement - it is out of court. If it has to go to court to be ratified then it isnt an out of court settlement. As I say, I am not an expert on American law but my understanding was that they follow an "english law" system where the judge is there simply to judge the cases put in front of them (rather than the "roman law" like the majority of the continent where their job is actually to "ask questions" etc).

In an english law system the courts would not be necessary to judge what the parties have agreed upon as being fair.

Debt_Free_Chick

Astaroth wrote:

It actually states that the 50% of future costs is how it will be settled and the $90m is Googles reserve for paying this.

What is says is this

"Under the settlement, Google will establish a $90 million settlement fund, of which a portion will be used to pay class counsel’s fees and costs, and the remainder will be available to class members in the form of advertising credits that may be applied to up to 50% of the cost of future online advertising purchased from Google. To receive credits, you must submit a valid and timely claim form. Credits will be awarded on a pro rata basis, taking into account the amount that you paid to Google for the ads and the total amount of credits available. For example, if the amounts that you paid to Google for the affected ads were 1% of Google’s revenues from online advertising since January 1, 2002, you would be eligible to receive 1% of the total available credits. You must certify in your claim form the percentage of your ads you believe were affected by “click fraud”."

So you get credits which you can use to meet up to 50% of future advertising costs. So you need to buy future advertising which is at least double the amount of your credit. You use the credit towards that and .. .that's it - you've used up your credit.

I could be wrong - it doesnt add up to me - I would be exceptionally surprised if a settlement of this size against a blue chip company that is forcing them to basically 1/2 their price for life (according to the site) hasnt hit the financial sections of the papers if not the main news sections.

I think you've misunderstood the way that the credits work - nowhere does it state that you will get a 50% discount on future advertising costs for life. If you Google ... google click fraud suit ... there are over 2m hits, so I wouldn't be concerned about the (apparent) lack of UK press coverage - although it was certainly reported in The Times.

But that is the idea of an out of court settlement - it is out of court. If it has to go to court to be ratified then it isnt an out of court settlement. As I say, I am not an expert on American law but my understanding was that they follow an "english law" system where the judge is there simply to judge the cases put in front of them (rather than the "roman law" like the majority of the continent where their job is actually to "ask questions" etc).

In an english law system the courts would not be necessary to judge what the parties have agreed upon as being fair.

It started in the Courts ... the parties have agreed the damages .... it now needs to go back to Court so that the settlement can be rolled over into a Court Order. The Court has the power to vary its own Court Order, in order to achieve "justice" (in the US legal sense of the word).

Reaching an agreed settlement speeds up the Court process, thus saving on litigation costs.

I think you are being over-sensitive, perhaps because you are unconvinced that this may not be a scam. If it is a scam, aside from it being difficult to see what ClickSettlement is getting (as no personal information is needed to get access to the site), then it's been carefully crafted by someone who knows the US legal system and, in particular, how it relates to class actions.

Google itself seems to confirm the validity of the claim and the basis for the credits.

Regards