Google has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the company of charging advertisers for clicks on ads shown outside their selected geographic locations.
The settlement, reported by Reuters, was filed in a California court and still needs approval from a judge.
The lawsuit dates back to 2011 and focuses on Google AdWords (now called Google Ads). Advertisers claimed Google misled them about where their ads would appear and failed to provide promised “Smart Pricing” discounts. The case accused Google of violating California’s Unfair Competition Law.
A Google spokesperson said the issue involved ad features that were changed over a decade ago and expressed satisfaction with the case being resolved.
This settlement is just one of Google’s ongoing legal battles. The company is also facing a federal antitrust lawsuit that could force it to sell Google Chrome and another trial accusing it of monopolizing the online ad industry.
The lawsuit involved an extensive review of Google’s records, with legal teams analyzing over 910,000 pages of documents and multiple terabytes of click data.
The class action covers advertisers who used Google AdWords between June 1, 2009, and December 13, 2012.
