Google privacy lawsuits pile up after court denies class action
By Mike Scarcella
July 17 (Reuters) -Law firms Boies Schiller Flexner and Morgan & Morgan have flooded California courts with thousands of lawsuits accusing Google of violating users' privacy rights, after a U.S. judge said they could not pursue a class action seeking billions of dollars.
In a court filing on Tuesday, the law firms disclosed they are representing 96,000 clients in nearly 2,000 cases filed in California state court since March.
The lawsuits, which seek monetary damages against Google, mirror the claims in a federal case filed in Oakland in 2020 that accused Google of unlawfully collecting, storing and using consumers’ browsing data while they used the company’s private browsing mode called “Incognito.”
Google agreed last year to settle the federal case while denying the claims. The company said it would destroy billions of data records of consumers who thought they were surfing the web privately. But the deal, which did not create a settlement fund, allowed for individual lawsuits seeking money damages.
Google in a statement on Wednesday said “these copycat complaints are meritless and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal settlement is pending court approval. Google has balked at the plaintiffs’ law firms' request for $217 million in legal fees for their work.
The firms had sought class action status to represent millions of Google consumers seeking more than $5 billion in damages. A federal judge last year declined to certify a class action for money damages, and an appeals court refused to review the order.
Boies Schiller and Morgan & Morgan said they secured a “tolling" agreement with Google that would bar the tech company from arguing that the individuals’ claims in state court were filed too late.
Another law firm, Potter Handy, told the judge overseeing the federal case that it is representing 70,000 clients in related privacy cases filed against Google since April.
An attorney at the firm involved in the litigation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Read more:
Google slams opposing lawyers’ $217 million fee bid in privacy case
Google to destroy browsing data to settle consumer privacy lawsuit
Google 'Incognito' users lose appeal to sue for damages as class
Reporting by Mike Scarcella
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