Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google on Friday asked a U.S. judge to deny a request from plaintiffs’ lawyers for $217 million in fees in a consumer privacy lawsuit that once sought billions of dollars in damages but later settled for no payment from the tech giant.
Google told U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland that the requested amount was “beyond the pale” and said there was no precedent for “such a massive sum” in a case where there was no settlement fund to be shared among the consumer class members.
The 2020 lawsuit claimed Google collected data from users despite their use of private-browsing in Chrome's "Incognito" mode. Google in April said it would destroy billions of data records in the settlement, which covered millions of Google users, with no financial payout for the class.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs at law firms Boies Schiller Flexner, Morgan & Morgan and Susman Godfrey estimated the accord was worth as much as $7.8 billion when they asked the court to approve $217 million in fees.
“Boies Schiller originally wanted $5 billion for its lawsuit and their fees motion is just another attempt to generate news and line their own pockets in a case they settled for $0," a Google spokesperson said on Friday.
Plaintiffs' attorneys at Boies Schiller, Susman Godfrey and Morgan & Morgan did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Google asked Rogers to award a "reasonable" fee and suggested that any award not top $40 million. Google said the settlement value "is neither quantifiable nor large — and certainly not worth billions."
Last year, a U.S. appeals court upheld a lower judge's order that struck the ability of the consumer class to seek monetary damages in the case.
In their fee petition, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said their “lodestar” fee, which is the number of hours multiplied by rates, would amount to $62.4 million.
They contend that figure should be multiplied based on the success of the litigation and the risks they took in pursuing the complex case.
The plaintiffs' attorneys said they invested 78,880 hours into the case. The fee filing showed billing rates of prominent attorneys including Boies Schiller founder David Boies, who is charging $2,330. Bill Carmody of Susman Godfrey is charging $2,500 an hour.
The class attorneys told Rogers that a lesser fee would allow Google "to evade the accountability this court has demanded from them.”
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
Read more:
Lawyers in Google browsing data case ask for $218 million fee award
Google to destroy browsing data to settle consumer privacy lawsuit
Google 'Incognito' users lose appeal to sue for damages as class
