Google click-fraud settlement??? Half price Adwords?

[accentnepal]

Just got this. Yahoo spam filter did not catch it.

Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account

This court-ordered notice may affect your legal rights. Please read it carefully. If you purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present, you are a class member in a class-action lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice is to inform you of the Court’s certification of a class; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement. Please read the attached notice.

You can get more information at: www. click settle ment. com. (spaces added)

Then comes the same notice in 19 more languages (!) and a PDF file that surely looks real. Some hi (or low) lights:

*All adword customers since January 1, 2002 are affected by this case.

*You have to fill out a form between June 19 and August 4 to be part of the settlement. You snooze - you lose.

*You can opt out of the settlement, preserving your right to bring other action or be in another class-action over the same issues. You also can object. Do nothing by August 4 and you lose your position.

*The settlement has not yet been approved by the judge. It calls for a $90 million settlement fund. One third (30 million dollars) probably goes to the plaintiff attorneys. The remainder is pro-rated by the percent of Google's total business that each customer represents. If the customer does not submit the claim form, opt-out or object, it appears Google keeps that portion.

*The attorneys get cash, the customers get a 50% credit on future advertising. Since that is about Google's cost, the credits to customers only cost Google in lost business. For me, half off of worthless advertising is still worthless.

*To file a claim Google customers must certify the amount of click fraud they were charged for. How they expect us to know that is anybody's guess.

*You can remain in the lawsuit and object to the settlement by writing both attorneys and the court with your objections. I have no doubt they all will be very interested.

So the attorneys got together,  baked a nice little cake for themselves, and gave us a half-off coupon. What a load.          :poopbanaana:        :poopbanaana:

[mandy]

It's legit.  The lawyers agreed to a settlement in March: http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...l#msg10571

This article states advertisers would be notified on 20 May.  So the email is legit.
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060505-093800

From that same article:

click fraud victims would be getting only a half-cent for every $1 in fraud

I believe at least one advertiser is attempting to fight the settlement.

For me, half off of worthless advertising is still worthless.

Organic search and RSS feeds are more effective than AdWords and are free.

[accentnepal]

It seems a lot of people are thinking the email is spam and are not opening it. For those who do not respond before August 4, their cut of the phoney $60 million goes back to Google, and they lose the right to participate in future lawsuits.

I did not know you can serve legal papers by e-mail and I expect lawyers for the California case could say that it was inadequate notification.

Although I am still considering, opting out seems the best move. It is a crummy settlement for everyone but the attorneys (and Google) and I lost too much money on adwords to be interested in half off.

[bargainbloodhound]

I did not know you can serve legal papers by e-mail

I know you can serve some legal notices by SMS in Korea.

I received the first notice of the PayPal Class Action settlement by email, but I think it was followed up by a snail mail notice (but don't quote me on that).  I think a notice by regular mail is still a legal requirement...of course they can wait until right before the deadline to get it to you.

It is a crummy settlement for everyone but the attorneys

The attorneys are almost always the biggest only winners in class actions.