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$11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

adsensepublishersettlement.com

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Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#71
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly the same here, I was looking forward to the day I could finally cash out and use it for stuff I needed (also a cash-stripped kid at the time), and then they decided I had committed fraud. Nowadays I’m trying to avoid using any hosted services at all due to that (and later, similar) experiences.

are you talking about the $100 threshold?

It was a 70€ threshold over here, but yes.

I was waiting to cash out, and just days before I got a "oops it was fraud", and they decided to keep it all.

It was my first negative experience with Google, and definitely not the last.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when it comes to customer support Do they have customer support? Last time I used my google account (a few years ago) to attempt to buy a Nexus, my transaction was flagged as fraud and I was locked out of my account.. I tried for a few days to find a way to contact anyone from Google.. never happened.. I eventually gave up and bought an iPhone and it was ironically the best thing that could have happened in that scen…

if you are a big ad words spender, they have some support

They also have support for Google MyBusiness (local listing). This is their gateway to more AdWord spenders. Most noticeable because it’s the first pop up you get after you claim your listing.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when it comes to customer support Do they have customer support? Last time I used my google account (a few years ago) to attempt to buy a Nexus, my transaction was flagged as fraud and I was locked out of my account.. I tried for a few days to find a way to contact anyone from Google.. never happened.. I eventually gave up and bought an iPhone and it was ironically the best thing that could have happened in that scen…

if you are a big ad words spender, they have some support

Some. It's proportional to level of effort. Good luck to you if their APIs are broken and you need engineering to fix it.

Co-sponsored events (as in conferences) + AdWords 360 + Attribution 360 + high 8-digits/year spent on AdWords and another high 8 spent on YouTube isn't enough to get that sometimes.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#75

I worked in advertising and I saw how scared AdSense publishers constantly were of getting banned by Google. I understand that Google has to defend their business, but some times they were really harsh on things that were debatable grey areas. I always thought that Google was just needlessly giving itself a bad reputation as a business partner. $11M is about 1 hr of Google's revenue (365 x 24 x 11/100000 = 0.96) EDIT…

11 million is a joke really. I only lost about $250, but it pretty much killed off an otherwise promising potential startup.

yeah if someone slips on your property and gets hurt, you're looking at millions potentially

But a $600+ billion dollar company that steals millions of dollars from thousands of publishers? $11 million . It's as if they measured it down to the penny exactly which is rare because often you see these huge settlement numbers like for tobacco companies, where it seems excessive. But the case where there are the most victims and the most hurt victims and victims that are the most innocent gets the most pathetic, most measured payout. It's the exact opposite of the frivolous lawsuit.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#76
post #39

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google s…

This happened to me as well, virtually the same story.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#77
post #46

Why just 2010 to 2018? Mine was terminated back in 2008 with about $500 in it.

Mine was terminated before that, and to this day I can't open an adsense account, even with a site that gets a million views per year.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As your quote notes, Class Representatives mean people with "active participation in the case" - i.e. the members of the class who spend their time dealing with the class lawyers and showing up in court as named plaintiffs. This would be separate from anything that class members receive just by being class members.

Good catch! From the agreement document: "“Class Representative(s)” means each and all of the named Plaintiffs in this Action: Free Range Content, Inc., Coconut Island Software, Inc., Taylor Chose, and Matthew Simpson" So that clause means that the plaintiffs will get up to $5,000 on top of what they will receive as claimants, and there is no such limit on claims (but the total payments will not exceed 11 million, in…

Some publishers lost over $1 million I think. After the fees and lawyer cut, I don't think much will be left. The $11 million is a reduced figure. The initial figure probably was enough to cover all payouts and fees.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a given.

On the advertiser side of Google's services, I have a refund for "invalid activity" on almost every monthly statement going back nearly a decade. > You received a credit because we found invalid activity on your ads. What is it: Invalid activity refers to clicks and impressions that we suspect aren't the result of genuine customer interest. We don't charge you for invalid activity on your ads. Example: Invalid activi…

one possibility is the refund is done to create the illusion click fraud is being prevented . It's like a manager telling the owner only $100 was taken from the til but $150 was and he pockets the $50. Not that I'm saying google is like that but you have no way of auditing this figure.
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