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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Aug 21st 2006 11:07am





What's The Bigger Scam? Clickfraud Or Clickfraud Class Action Settlement?

from the ah,-the-class-action-swindle dept

While the advertisers suing Google over clickfraud got just a bit of pocket change out of the company (something they were upset about), they're probably a lot happier with that result than what came out of a similar lawsuit against Yahoo. zanek writes "Disgruntled Yahoo! advertisers who were hoping for just compensation from the Pay-Per-Click fraud settlement may as well get over it. Here's the short version: Yahoo! names an insider to watch ad traffic, invites 3 advertisers a year to chat, promises to make an effort to come up with industry-wide standards, extends its fraud claim period, and gives you an advertising credit... if you can prove you were harmed. I almost forgot the best part. Your class action attorneys walk away with nearly five million bucks. D'oh!" Of course, this is pretty standard for class action lawsuits these days. Also, in Yahoo's defense, so far the evidence that has been shown suggests that those who are suing are making a much bigger deal out of clickfraud than is justified. So, perhaps they don't really deserve much compensation anyway. Of course, that doesn't explain why the lawyers get so much money, but that's what lawyers do.

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Is it just me...

    identicon
    NSMike, Aug 21st, 2006 @ 11:18am

    ...Or are all new businesses lately forgetting that business is a risk, and that losses from dishonesty are expected and should be prepared for?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Is it just me...

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 21st, 2006 @ 11:33am

    Why prepare for losses when you can sue instead? The chances of ending in the black are way better.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Doublespeak

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 21st, 2006 @ 11:59am

    Clickfraud. Thoughtcrime. Double + ungood.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Re: Is it just me...

    identicon
    lar3ry, Aug 21st, 2006 @ 12:19pm

    Of course! That's why the lawyers get the big bucks.

    It's like the card game the kid plays with Ron Shnieder in "Big Daddy," called "I Win!" No matter what cards are played, the lawyers always win.

    "I won a million dollar lawsuit against Yahoo/Google/Whomever!"

    "Really! They gave you a million dollars?"

    "Well, no... the lawyers took that. I get to say that I win, though."

    "Good for you. Have another cookie."

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    justme, Aug 21st, 2006 @ 12:41pm

    They should change the rules when there is a class action or any kind of lawsuit. Lawyer gets no more than 42%. That will keep these fly by night lawyers off the air ways.... maybe. There is something wrong when the person whom sues walks away with nothing but a "you won". Some one is forgetting that the ones doing the suits sometimes are the working class not out to get rich quick. They spend many hours away from home, and work too.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    Lawyers need a reality check

    identicon
    Average Joe, Aug 21st, 2006 @ 1:11pm

    Lets give 5 mil to a developer to come up with a solution to clickfraud. No... corp America would rather farm out the job to a 3rd world country where the code is written by some snot nose kid for 3k a year. Does not say too much about corp. America although I would take one engineer to fifty lawyers any day.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Re:

    identicon
    Patrick, Aug 22nd, 2006 @ 8:10am

    Lawyers usually don't get more than 42%; Has anyone seen the bills from the attorneys - you would be surprised that half if not most of that 5 million will go to pay expenses. I am not a lawyer but I do work for a team of class action attorneys in MN. I worked on a case and our expenses (not including salaries)were over 5 million dollars

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  

    look yourself.

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 24th, 2006 @ 5:53pm

    www.checkmatesettlement.com is the supposed plaintiff (and a .pdf of the settlement notification can be found there about halfway down the main page), but go to www.godaddy.com and see who owns that website, then look them up online. they list yahoo as a client....

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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