Like many people I believe I've been treated unfairly by Google. Over the past 6 years we are 100% confident that we've adhered to Googles terms and conditions but have suffered from: 1) The closure of my adsense account and my wifes - despite the fact that an unrelated business account that now administers exactly the same adverts as the closed accounts has never been closed or suspended. 2) The closure of one of our google checkout accounts literally seconds after we managed to integrate the API with our checkout procedure and before we even managed to process a transaction. This account was set up with exactly the same business, credit card and banking details as our other google checkout account (google advised us to do this) and the other account is working perfectly. On their own, each of the three account closures was a frustration but, combined and we've reached our threshold and are considering issuing a subpoena to Google. Does anybody have experience with this? Could anybody please lend their opinion to the following: - Can a Subpoena force Google to reveal the reasons why these three accounts were closed? - Can one subpoena be used to request information on behalf of other people who also feel that google have closed their accounts unfairly? If so then I'll consider sending a subpoena on behalf of a large group of people. - Could the results of a subpoena that shows that Google negligently / maliciously closed accounts be used as a prerequisite to filing a class-action suit against google? - Have other people tried issuing a subpoena before against Google and what was the ultimate outcome? - In your opinion what would be the likely outcome of this type of subpoena? Thanks in advance for your input. Best wishes, Martin
Before you incur substantial legal bills trying to sue Google, have you carefully read the terms of service? https://www.google.com/adsense/terms It's fairly bullet proof (that's what you get when you can afford to have a team of lawyers on staff).
Thanks ViciousSummer, Realistically I doubt that it's worth my time taking full legal action against them but I do sincerely want to know what justification Google has in closing my accounts (and the accounts of other people who are in a similar position to me). Seeing as their terms basically state that they refuse to reply to questions regarding account closures, a subpoena seems to be the only choice I have available. I'm hoping that by forcing their hand to investigate my account they might recognize their error and reinstate them. Naive perhaps, but for the small cost involved it's worth it for the experience. Best wishes, Martin