I got something in the mail today, I guess some sort of legal document that truth be told I really don't understand, I guess it has to do with adwords accounts active from 2005-2009. Does anyone know anything more about this? Am I supposed to do something? I honestly am pretty confused.
Never heard that before... What is that all about? What did you do with them before? Do you owe them money??
More about it here - http://searchengineland.com/what-adwords-customers-need-to-know-about-20-million-settlement-20788
Yes, I got the same thing. Seems they were charging people when they shouldn't have been. They have agreed to a $20,000,000 settlement, which they have already put into an escrow account, if everyone drops the suite...though they are not claiming to have done anything wrong and never will make this claim.
I expect to get some refund back for the Adwords I used. Google charged me for a lot of clicks while my website was inaccessible because my host was under DDoS attack. Still waiting for their explanation how someone can click on my ads and connect to my website while it is down. Their own traffic logs invalidated what they charged me. There was a reason why their lawyers told them they are not likely to prevail if it was litigated out. Google has signed on to SETTLE the lawsuit for $20 million. That amounts to a very small refund to the individual victims of their charging scheme. Again, if you read the settlement agreement, their lawyers have stated that Google would not likely prevail in litigation and the award to plaintiffs would be much higher.
Yeah I got this also. The $20,000,000 settlement, is a drop in the bucket to the Big 'G'. I'm sure they would much rather settle at this amount, as opposed to what the outcome may be otherwise.
> Google charged me for a lot of clicks while my website was inaccessible because my host was under DDoS attack. Sorry to hear that but you won't get money back from Google for this. Google is not responsible for your site, you are. Their service is to provide an advertising medium and send clicks to you. Their responsibility ends when someone clicks on your ad. Obviously, if your site is down or your landing page doesn't exist, they won't end up there so that'll be a wasted click for you. As for the lawsuit, if you are budgeting $10 per day, Google says it can charge you more on some days (very small percentage over your budget) but that the monthly average will NOT be more than $10 per day. That is, you won't be charged more than $300 for the month. Being overcharged for the month has never happened to me or my clients. Being the case and this explained in the TOS, I doubt anyone will ever get to see a refund.
If I know Google, they are going to be makng it difficult for anyone to collect on that settlement. My dealings with Google have never been amicable yet. And contacting a real Google rep is next to being able to talk directly to the president of the United States...which is actually easier than talking to Google.