Advertisers To Get Notices From Google In Click Fraud Settlement Later This Month
Google Proposes $90M Settlement from the Associated Press is a general
update on the status of the proposed click fraud settlement with Google. It was
announced
last March, given
preliminary approval by the judge in April, and now Google is supposed to
notify advertisers about the settlement by May 20. Then advertisers will have
until late June to reject or protest the proposal. Final approval, if granted,
will come in late July.
One company cited in the AP article has already decided to reject the offer,
and attorney Brian Kabateck, whose firm Kabateck Brown Keller is involved in a
separate
potential class action suit involving Google, also objects to it.
Google Condemned For Click-Fraud Settlement from InformationWeek has a
deeper drill-down on that. The separate case was filed in California, and a stay
against it proceeding further is in place until the Arkansas-based case is
resolved.
Kabateck also put out a press
release (PDF)
last month after the agreement was granted preliminary approval, alleging that
click fraud victims would be getting only a half-cent for every $1 in fraud and
that the $60 million in credits might be much less if the click fraud rate is
determined to be lower, among other things.
Separately, I heard from another attorney in the case, from the firm of
Chitwood Harley Harnes, who passed along this
letter
(PDF) that was sent on behalf of his plaintiff, Advanced Internet Technologies,
by the firm of Mercy Carter Tidwell. It also asks that the judge not grant the
approval, explaining in more detail the "pennies on the dollar" argument.
Postscript Barry: I was sent the official documents and agreements for the case. The agreement can be downloaded as a PDF document by clicking here and the order can be downloaded by clicking here.
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