Google Sued for Not Paying $1,000,000 in AdSense to apparent Poet

That's the problem with all the 'big' players like google in that they are judge and juror. You dance to their tune until they stop you. They'll just throw their legal team at it..no big deal but the claimant could lose the shirt off his back fighting this. Let's be honest if it costs google $100k to fight it it'll be pocket change!!

How do you expect an independent third party (other that a judge or jury, which for some reason you are kicking to the curb as not worthy of resolving issues) to decide the dispute?

And decide it without "litigation"?

You expect Google, Amazon, anyone with an affiliate program, any business paying sales commissions - to just voluntarily open up their operations, trade secrets, books and financial records, make employees available for questioning, etc.?

Basically, you do not want "litigation" - but probably want the ability to have an attorney, discovery of information, and the legal rights and protections involved with "litigation".

Meanwhile, back in the real world arbitration is one of the most expensive traps someone can find themselves in.

This is going to surprise a few, but arbitration is still "litigation". Primarily, the forum changes from a public court of law overseen by a judge to a private hearing overseen by a judge now retired. Instead of making use of publicly provided facilities the parties have to pay for everything, including the judge. It can be outrageously expensive. A week long trial in court before a judge, costing you zero or close to it, can easily cost $75,000 for an arbitration.

Or the case Suzanne refers to, someone makes an anonymous post online claiming they were a Google insider and Google was cancelling accounts that reached a certain level. Based on that post a class action lawsuit is filed. But instead of a class action lawsuit you want a free arbitration, somehow without "litigation", to somehow decide a potentially billion dollar issue based on an anonymous post?

With the decision presumably being enforceable somehow?

Conceptually, I suppose you're right. Maybe an independent arbitrator like the UN will decide the outcome of all the world's major disputes next week.

While we're at it, sign me up for a litigation-free, cost-free arbitration about a few search engine rankings I dispute. Per Google's rules / guidelines some of my sites should be ranking higher - at least that's my opinion.

There is certainly truth to an implied issue that litigation is expensive. It is. Too expensive and many do not see justice as a result. It also depends on your perspective. A hundred dollar fee an attorney might charge for a service is too expensive for X, but for Y is the incredible deal of the year.

But I know this ... if you have a million dollar claim against Google, and it has some possible merit, you are not going to have trouble finding an attorney who will litigate the matter for you for free.

Over the years many here on this forum have complained about Google ripping them off in the AdSense program proclaiming they did nothing wrong. I have suggested they file a claim. They don't, even though tens of thousands of dollars were lost, suggesting to me they do have a click-fraud problem, which would not be surprising in the IM arena. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens with these lawsuits.

I wouldn't want my prior comments to be deemed as some defense of Google. I agree with you on this one. I believe Google is the most fined company on the planet and it has deserved a lot more IMHO.

The "public" though is not going to understand, or care, about the terror Google puts marketers and website owners through. They see a company providing a very useful search service, offering fast wi-fi to more communities, self-driving cars, Android phones, cheap Chrome computers, etc.


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