It’s been a busy end to 2023 for Google and its legal team.
The internet search giant, owned by
Alphabet,
has agreed to settle a $5 billion consumer-privacy lawsuit, alleging it tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were browsing privately.
A federal judge in California put a scheduled February trial on hold following a preliminary agreement, in a court filing Thursday, Reuters and The Washington Post reported.
It’s the second settlement Alphabet has reached this month, after agreeing to pay $700 million and make changes to its app store to settle an antitrust lawsuit. Google also lost an antitrust court battle against Epic Games after a California federal jury decided it maintains a monopoly in its app store’s distribution and payments market. Google plans to challenge the verdict.
In the latter part of 2023 there was also the monthslong trial in the Justice Department’s high-profile antitrust case against Google over its search engine. A decision is expected early next year.
While details of the consumer-privacy lawsuit settlement are yet to be disclosed, Google will likely have paid less to settle than the $5 billion-plus bill it faced if it had lost the case.
The class-action lawsuit alleged Google tracked users’ activity and data even when using Google Chrome’s ‘Incognito’ mode—a setting meant to protect privacy. The plaintiffs claimed the monitoring of activity in incognito mode turned Google into an “unaccountable trove of information,” by allowing the company to learn about users’ friends, hobbies, shopping habits and “potentially embarrassing things.”
Google, which denied any wrongdoing, was unsuccessful in its attempt to get the lawsuit dismissed in August. Google did not immediately respond to a Barron’s request for comment early Friday.
Lawyers from both sides will submit the final agreement for court approval by Feb. 24.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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