Google Hit with Class Action Following Bombshell Report Alleging Widespread Ad Fraud

Google, LLC has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit this week alleging the tech behemoth has essentially bilked advertisers out of billions of dollars by misrepresenting the quality and placement of their video ads.

The 26-page lawsuit, filed on July 26, comes in the wake of a bombshell report by ad campaign analytics firm Adalytics that found that the placement of Google’s proprietary TrueView video advertisements violated the company’s own standards as much as 80 percent of the time.

According to the suit, though Google promised advertisers that their video ads would be shown on high-quality websites and displayed as skippable, audible videos initiated by the user, these representations were many times far from the truth. Indeed, Adalytics reported that “significant quantities” of TrueView skippable in-stream ads were served as muted, auto-playing ads that were either “out-stream,” i.e., not within the site’s main video content, or “obscured” on independent, low-quality sites, the complaint relays.

The effect of Google’s conduct, the suit alleges, is that advertisers have paid “hefty amounts” for video ads that were not served in accordance with the company’s representations and, in many cases, were not viewed by the consumers they paid to engage with.

“Google’s conduct was substantially injurious to consumers of advertising services in that they have been forced to pay a premium for improper, abusive, and/or unconscionable practices in purchasing TrueView advertisements that were not in accordance with Google’s policies and representations,” the suit summarizes.

Google’s TrueView video advertisements

TrueView is a proprietary form of video ads that Google represents as a “cost-per-view, choice-based ad format that serves on YouTube, millions of apps, and across the web,” the complaint relays.

Per the suit, advertisers pay for TrueView ads, also called “skippable in-stream video ads,” based on their number of views. In other words, the case says, Google only charges the advertiser when a user chooses not to skip their ad within the first 30 seconds (or watches the whole thing if the ad is less than 30 seconds long).

Google further represents that TrueView ads are always skippable, audible by default and in-stream, meaning they will play along with the site’s main video content (such as before or during a YouTube video), the case says. Advertisers are also told that scroll-to-play ads are not permitted for TrueView and that mid-roll ads, i.e., those that play in the middle of a video, can only be placed in a video that’s at least 10 minutes long, according to the complaint.

Per the suit, Google also represents that TrueView ads will only be shown on its network of “high-quality publisher websites and mobile apps,” which are “carefully vetted and must meet Google’s inventory quality standards.”

Lawsuit claims Google’s representations are far from the truth

Citing the Adalytics report, the lawsuit claims that in many cases, Google’s TrueView advertisements are “not displayed as promised.”

According to the case, these practices have the effect of artificially inflating advertisers’ video completion rates, meaning they end up paying higher prices for “views” that may have been unintentional or ineffective.

Further, the lawsuit claims that according to the Adalytics report, thousands of TrueView ads were displayed on low-quality websites and apps that fail to meet Google’s standards, including those with copyright violations, sites discussing “executions or children being murdered,” made-for-advertising sites, gaming apps with content geared toward children, sites with no organic video content, disinformation sites, and websites or apps developed by countries subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions.

What’s more, the case claims video ads were in some instances served to web-crawling bots, including bots run by Google itself, instead of actual consumers.

Adalytics’ research reportedly found that in the case of one sample client, “a major infrastructure brand,” more than 80 percent of its ad budget was spent on “tens of thousands of different websites or mobile apps” that make up Google’s video partners network, the majority of which served ads in a way that violated Google’s policies.

“The TrueView practice is not only violative of Google’s policies and promises and deceptive, but it serves no purpose but to further enrich Google who charges a premium for these TrueView advertisements and receives inflated payments due to artificial views of TrueView advertisements,” the lawsuit scathes.

Who does the lawsuit look to cover?

The proposed class action aims to represent all advertisers who paid for TrueView in-stream advertisements during the applicable statute of limitations period and through the date of class certification.

I paid Google for in-stream ads. How do I join the lawsuit?

When a class action is first filed, there’s usually nothing you need to do to join or be considered part of the lawsuit. The time to take action is generally if and when the lawsuit settles, at which point those covered, called the class members, may receive direct notice of the settlement with instructions on what to do next.

It often takes months or even years for a class action to be resolved. Until then, one of the best things you can do is to stay informed. If you paid Google for in-stream video ads, or just want to stay in the loop on class action lawsuit and settlement news, sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.