Google Seeks To Throw Out UK Safari Tracking Suit 70
judgecorp writes "In the latest twist to the saga of Google's tracking of Safari users, the tech giant has asked to have a U.K. lawsuit dismissed. Google says it is bound by California laws, so plaintiffs will have to come to the U.S. and sue there. Law firm Olswang is bringing the suit on behalf of British users whose Safari browser settings were overridden to help Google target ads; it argues that international organizations should respect the laws that apply where their customers live."
Google Bows to No Queen (Score:4, Interesting)
Consistent with their tax stance, at least. :-)
Good courtroom strategy is sometimes lousy PR (Score:0, Interesting)
Microsoft learned this in the '90s, and paid the price in the 2000's when nobody would partner with them on phones.
Now it's Google's turn. Their making this type of argument looks really bad.
Is that valid? There's a good chance it isn't (Score:4, Interesting)
A lot of people seeing this sort of case ask a question like: can Google really decide where lawsuits must be filed?
I don't know the law about this in England, but in Belgium it seems the answer is: if the judge finds it not to be abusive.
In a case like this, where the "injured" party is financially small and the amount of damages per injured party will also be small, I wouldn't be surprised if Google's clause was found inapplicable.
But as I said, I don't know the relevant law in England. Just saying that besides yes and no, the answer could also be "it depends".