Take Google to Small Claims Court: You Might Win
Huffington Post has a story about a Google AdSense publisher who had his account terminated by Google for "posing a signficicant risk to advertisers." That advertiser sued Google in small claims court for $721, the amount of money he had accrued for clicks on his site. Guess what? He won! Seriously, go read the story, it reads very well.
Let me now give you the AdSense publisher reaction from DigitalPoint Forums.
Its small claims court. Google didn't even have lawyers representing them - a paralegal instead.All you'll win is the few bucks Google owes you. Better than nothing I guess... but you cannot get your account back via small claims court.
Sounds like a rare exception, doubt others would be able to do it.
Very nice article. I'm happy for the dude. Everybody whose account got cancelled, sue Google!
You can see his original posts in the Google AdSense Help Forum.
Is this going to spark a ton of law suits for Google?
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
Update: Turns out that publisher did indeed violate Google's TOS and the court overruled the decision in appeals court.
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rustybrick in Google AdSense at March 6, 2009 8:58 AM
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Funny, how both the judge and publisher used the "You couldn't terminate my account because of the color of my eyes" argument - why not? Unless it's a subterfuge for unlawful discrimination, refusing to do business with somebody because of the color of their eyes, car, shirt... whatever, isn't unlawful.
By the account given, Google went to court unprepared to prove its case. The plaintiff established a valid contract and a balance due under the contract. Google's representative could not explain why that money was not due. Plaintiff wins! (At least, plaintiff wins the money. The AdSense account was not reinstated.)
Posted by Aaron at March 6, 2009 10:53