Have any of you sued Google?

miketpowell

miketpowell

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Feb 20, 2009
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I know many people have had Adsense accounts disabled and never been able to get any response as to why.

Has any one sued them in small claims court? Like the guy in this article Aaron Greenspan: Why I Sued Google (and Won) [Updated]


Google just shut down my affiliate account (adsense account is still open) and of course provided no reason or details and said they didn't plan to.

I plan on suing them for the small claims court maximum of $5,000 for my business.

Sounds like it will be pretty easy if they haven't changed anything from when the guy in the article did it. I can't believe they actually bothered to send a paralegal to court with the defense she used.
 


Do they owe you any money? If so, should be just as easy as that guy found it.

However, if you're suing them for damages, much tougher. How will you prove damages? And why 5K? You can't just pull a random figure out of your ass because it fits the small claims limit. This isn't a government grant you're going for. You'll need to show them why 5k and not 50K or $500.

Also how will you prove you weren't in breach of contract?
 
google appealed that and got it back... if you read the next article lol
 
amateursurgeon said:
Do they owe you any money? If so, should be just as easy as that guy found it.

However, if you're suing them for damages, much tougher. How will you prove damages? And why 5K? You can't just pull a random figure out of your ass because it fits the small claims limit. This isn't a government grant you're going for. You'll need to show them why 5k and not 50K or $500.

Also how will you prove you weren't in breach of contract?
Click to expand...

Hmm well yes of course they owe me money otherwise I wouldn't care.

I had ~$7,000 in commissions in the account at the time, $5,000 is the maximum a LLC (me) can sue someone for in California in small claims court. So that's why I choose the number $5,000, make sense?

To show I wasn't in breach of contract I have records detailing the cost of the traffic ( I use paid traffic - some of it even Adwords ) and the server logs of my landing pages.

Although I believe the burden of proof is a bit more on Google's side of why they Don't owe me the commissions that were in my account prior to them disabling the account.

Butta said:
In California, lawyers aren't allowed in small claims court. That's why Google sent a paralegal.
Click to expand...

Yes I knew that - I just more was wondering why they would bother sending anyone with that defense and not just allowing a default judgment. Like, did they really think that defense would hold in court?

I'm just curious if anyone else has done this before. From what I hear many people should.... or maybe people just aren't sharing the entire story when they complain of an account getting disabled....


I plan on waiting a few months before I follow through with this as I'm in no rush and have other things that will keep me busy - it just works out because I don't mind taking a trip to the bay area just for fun some time in the future.
 
bauss said:
google appealed that and got it back... if you read the next article lol
Click to expand...

Haha I'm such a dumbass I didn't even see that....

Thanks maybe I won't bother after all, although I would contend I didn't break any TOS - maybe they could find a technicality and that's all that would matter... I wouldn't want to bother with having to go to a superior court appeal after the small claims court ordeal.

Oh well no need to decide right this moment.
 
It would probably boil down to whether you did or didn't cause a material breach of contract. For which they won't give you any evidence until you sue them, if the other case was anything to go by.

Also, a smartass lawyer could counterclaim, bumping you up to the non-small claims courts and putting you at risk for costs.

If you don't need the money, and just want to combine business travel with fucking with G, posting a cow's heart filled with nails to a different Google executive PA every week for a year from a different state would probably more effective.

Across 52 target PAs, you're bound to find an over-sensitive vegetarian in there who will have to take a month off work with upset. Thus bringing her boss's department to a standstill.
 
^^ Haha good call - I mean we'd like 5k as much as anyone would but it something we can live without.

I know we didn't cause any material breach of contract. But I've already found a technical detail we did violate - you are never supposed to click on your own affiliate link just like in Adsense(where you actually get paid on clicks and it makes sense)! I test links on every campaign before I set it live... as all affiliates should...
 
I've been using AdSense for 5 years and had my account disabled this month. It's really fucking annoying.
 
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