LONDON, February 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Google returns to the English High Court on Monday in a last
ditch effort to prevent British consumers from having the right to
sue it in the UK.
Consumers filed an action against Google in June 2013, claiming that Google ignored their
wishes, bypassing security settings, to install tracking cookies on
their computers in order to target them with advertising. Google
was fined £13.8m in the US after being found guilty of
circumventing settings on Apple devices. It also paid out a
further £10.5m to settle another claim in the United States, but British internet users
believe the company should also be held to account in England to prevent Google having what they
call an "open goal to abuse Britons' right to privacy."
In a highly technical legal argument, Google is challenging at
decision in January 2013 by High
Court Judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat,
to allow the consumers to sue the company in England. They say this was wrong, as
there is "no serious issue to be tried," given that the "alleged
incursion into the private life by [Google's] use of cookies does
not reach a level of seriousness to engage Article 8 [of the Human
Rights Act 1998]." It argues that the claim lacks merit
as consumers suffered no harm.
The consumers are outraged that Google should be attempting to
prevent this case from being heard in England, particularly after the company's
Director of Communications and Public Policy, former Conservative
spin-doctor, Rachel Whetstone,
stated to a group of politicians in Germany that "Google hasn't always got
[privacy] right… It's not just about the errors we have made-with
products like Buzz or the mistaken collection of WiFi data-but
about our attitude too. These have been lessons learned the hard
way."
"By continuing with its efforts to evade justice, Google is
clearly showing that for all the talk about learning from its
errors, it has much left to learn. It has never apologised to
British consumers. It simply ignored us. Instead it's
focussing its massive resources mounting a campaign to prevent us
holding it to account before the English courts. Google needs
to start treating British consumers with respect and honesty," said
Marc Bradshaw, one of three
claimants in the test case against Google. "Attempting to
trivialise this serious abuse of consumers' wishes is a disgrace.
It's high time Google apologised to British consumers and
accepted that it must answer to the courts in a country where it
continues to make profits. It clearly won't do that, so it seems
the only way to ensure Google is truly sorry is to force the
company to pay damages to British consumers whose rights they have
abused."
Next Monday, Google will attempt to persuade the Court of Appeal
to dismiss the test case, which is being brought by three members
of the Google Governance Campaign. 170 potential claimants
have registered interest, and millions of Apple users across the
world could potentially have a claim against the company if
Google's application fails.
Dan Tench, a partner at the law
firm Olswang, who represents the claimants, highlighted the case's
importance:
"Effectively, the Court of Appeal will decide whether British
consumers have any means to sue Google, now or in the future. We
firmly believe that this is the right forum for this case: these
consumers used the internet in England and their right to privacy was ignored
here through Google's illicit use of tracking cookies.
Google clearly is doing everything possible to evade answering to
our courts, relying on unprincipled, highly technical but also
flawed arguments to seek to overturn the High Court's decision.
Google deserves to fail And British consumers deserve this right to
sue. We are confident the Court of Appeal will dismiss this last
ditch effort to thwart the rights of British consumers once
again."
SOURCE Google Governance Campaign