4 ms·

This is what class actions are literally for. Yes, I know it sucks that the only people who make money are the lawyers, but it can result in some behavioral cha

This is what class actions are literally for. Yes, I know it sucks that the only people who make money are the lawyers, but it can result in some behavioral change. Google is fine attracting bots when it makes money for itself, but it can clearly detect that bot traffic when it has to pay out. There is likely huge amounts of money in total that Google has collected money from in ad buys but that they could also detect as bots. I would think class action lawyers would be all over this given the total amount of money involved.

crooked-v 22d ago
Unless, of course, the terms of service require mandatory binding arbitration and bar you from the recourse of the legal system entirely.
- hn_throwaway_99 22d ago
  I agree these clauses suck, but consumer mass arbitration is also a thing.
  - eadler 21d ago
    Until the terms start including "mass arbitration" provisions limiting consumers ability to even use the psuesocourts the companies force.
mitxela 22d ago
It doesn't have to be a class action. In fact it's worse for the defending company if they get 500 separate lawsuits than one class action.
- bluGill 22d ago
  Problem is the guy here spent $100 on ads that went to bots, and thus can get his $100 back after spending a million on lawyers.
  - mitxela 22d ago
    Small claims court is designed to minimize costs
    - quikoa 22d ago
      Yes and winning from Google in small claims court is definitely possible: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_1... Edit: AI can be a great help here, ask it: - How to prepare your case for your country. - Where to file and how much it going to cost. - Help you find weaknesses in your case and what you can do to fix those. - Rewrite your text in proper legalese (I do recommend to prepare the your arguments yourself to avoid over generalization from an LLM). Of course you need to verify because of hallucinations but showing up is half the battle here. Big (tech) corps + internal bureaucracy makes it quite expensive for fight these cases. Especially if there are many different countries.
      - tempest_ 22d ago
        You might get your 100 dollars but google will ban you / stop doing any business with you the minute you start that so you better be sure you don't need your account or google services going forward.
        lightedman 22d ago
        Then you sue them again in small claims court for the damages of not having access to your accounts (to which other online services require/are tied to which are not Google-owned properties) and have the judge force your reinstatement with a warning to Google that such punitive actions taken maliciously against the user will result in a prior fine*exponential multiplicative levied for each occurrence, with the base fine amount being the prior multiplicative fine issued. That leaves Google with very few chances to fuck up before they're financially wiped out, and this is a ruling you can have issued in a small claims court.
        deleted 22d ago
varispeed 22d ago
How much compensation do you get from a class action? $5? That is only a win for a lawyers. The problem is lack of regulatory action and law enforcement. We all pay taxes for these bodies to protect us and more often than not they collude with corporations and do nothing.

crooked-v 22d ago

Unless, of course, the terms of service require mandatory binding arbitration and bar you from the recourse of the legal system entirely.

hn_throwaway_99 22d ago
I agree these clauses suck, but consumer mass arbitration is also a thing.
- eadler 21d ago
  Until the terms start including "mass arbitration" provisions limiting consumers ability to even use the psuesocourts the companies force.

mitxela 22d ago

It doesn't have to be a class action. In fact it's worse for the defending company if they get 500 separate lawsuits than one class action.

bluGill 22d ago
Problem is the guy here spent $100 on ads that went to bots, and thus can get his $100 back after spending a million on lawyers.
- mitxela 22d ago
  Small claims court is designed to minimize costs
  - quikoa 22d ago
    Yes and winning from Google in small claims court is definitely possible: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_1... Edit: AI can be a great help here, ask it: - How to prepare your case for your country. - Where to file and how much it going to cost. - Help you find weaknesses in your case and what you can do to fix those. - Rewrite your text in proper legalese (I do recommend to prepare the your arguments yourself to avoid over generalization from an LLM). Of course you need to verify because of hallucinations but showing up is half the battle here. Big (tech) corps + internal bureaucracy makes it quite expensive for fight these cases. Especially if there are many different countries.
    - tempest_ 22d ago
      You might get your 100 dollars but google will ban you / stop doing any business with you the minute you start that so you better be sure you don't need your account or google services going forward.
      - lightedman 22d ago
        Then you sue them again in small claims court for the damages of not having access to your accounts (to which other online services require/are tied to which are not Google-owned properties) and have the judge force your reinstatement with a warning to Google that such punitive actions taken maliciously against the user will result in a prior fine*exponential multiplicative levied for each occurrence, with the base fine amount being the prior multiplicative fine issued. That leaves Google with very few chances to fuck up before they're financially wiped out, and this is a ruling you can have issued in a small claims court.
        deleted 22d ago

varispeed 22d ago

How much compensation do you get from a class action? $5? That is only a win for a lawyers. The problem is lack of regulatory action and law enforcement. We all pay taxes for these bodies to protect us and more often than not they collude with corporations and do nothing.