At a hearing in Oakland, California, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers grilled veteran litigator David Boies, representing the consumers, and attorneys for Google at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan who opposed the requested amount.

The 2020 lawsuit claimed Google collected data from users despite their use of private-browsing in Chrome's "Incognito" mode. Google reached a settlement in April that required it to destroy billions of data records. But the consumers failed to certify the case as a class action, and Google did not agree to pay monetary damages.

“I don't think you were entirely successful, because you didn't win on a damages claim, which was clearly part of what was driving it," Rogers said. Still, Rogers said the benefits of the settlement were "not insignificant."

Google denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the case, which had sought $5 billion in damages at one point.

In a statement, Google said the plaintiffs' fee bid was "just another attempt to generate news and line their own pockets in a case they settled for $0."

Attorneys for the plaintiffs at Boies Schiller, Susman Godfrey and Morgan & Morgan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The firms said they sunk $62.4 million into the case based on their hours and rates, and have asked the court to award more than triple that amount to account for success and other factors.

Google accused the lawyers of claiming unreasonable hours and billing for lengthy meetings and allegedly duplicative work. It urged Rogers to cut tens of millions of dollars from the request. Google said it had spent less than $40 million defending against the case.

Rogers said it was “excessive” for the plaintiffs to charge $667 an hour for reviewing documents, and she said the consumers’ lawyers did not need three to four lawyers at a deposition. “You may want them there — that's fine,” Rogers said. “You can't charge for them.”

Boies defended the fee petition, which also included work by attorneys from Susman Godfrey and Morgan & Morgan. He said the plaintiffs expended significant time trying to ramp up their understanding of Google’s technology and emphasized their achievements.

“This was something where we really had to fight it out," he said.

Quinn Emanuel’s Andrew Schapiro argued there was nothing historic about the consumer’s settlement. “They struck out again and again and again,” he said.

Boies Schiller and Morgan & Morgan are pursuing thousands of lawsuits in California state court accusing Google of violating users' privacy rights. Those cases seek money damages that were denied in the federal action.

The case is Brown et al v. Google LLC, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-80147.

For plaintiffs: David Boies and Mark Mao of Boies Schiller Flexner; Bill Carmody of Susman Godfrey; and John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan

For defendant: Andrew Schapiro, Diane Doolittle and Stephen Broome of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

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