Korein Tillery and Bartlit Beck Win $314M Jury Verdict in Suit Against Google

ST. LOUIS, July 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- St. Louis and Chicago based law firm Korein Tillery, along with co-counsel from Bartlit Beck, has won a California state court jury trial on behalf of California Android cell phone users. After a three-week trial, the jury found that Google had transferred cellular data from Android phones without the user's consent or knowledge. Google then used the data for targeting digital advertising. The jury awarded over $314 million in damages.

Filed in 2019, the suit focused on Google's failure to disclose to Android users that their data was being transferred over cellular networks, and that they were using customers' data plans for those transfers. The trial began on June 2 in Santa Clara County. The class action was made up of people "who, while residing in the state of California, have used a mobile phone running a Google-licensed version of the Android operating system with a cellular data plan from August 9, 2016 to the present."

One of the significant claims in the case was whether cellular data qualifies as property under California law. In a parallel federal lawsuit, the trial court had previously dismissed those claims on the grounds that cellular data did not qualify as property. After an appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the district court's decision.

After the verdict, Korein Tillery partner Marc Wallenstein said, "It is undeniably clear that the jury agreed with us that Google had been covertly collecting an enormous amount of Android user data, then converting it for their own profit. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Google collected and converted this data through depleting the user's own data." Wallenstein also pointed out that the method by which Google collected user data lacked transparency and was built into the programming code making it impossible for users to opt out.

In addition to trial attorney Marc A. Wallenstein, the Korein Tillery team also included attorneys Chad Bell, George Zelcs, Carol O'Keefe, Ryan Cortazar, Pamela Yaacoub, and Devin Dippold. The Bartlit Beck team included Karma Giulianelli, Glen Summers, Hamilton Hill, Benjamin Montague, and Jacob Marsh.

Korein Tillery is an AV-rated, award-winning law firm with offices in St. Louis, Chicago, San Diego and Naples. The firm has recovered billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements, gaining a national reputation for aggressively and successfully pursuing a wide range of complex civil cases. Korein Tillery has been named by the National Law Journal as one of the nation's top plaintiffs' law firms.

Contact Information:
Jerry L. Brown
Director of Communications
Korein Tillery
314-241-4844
[email protected]
www.koreintillery.com

SOURCE Korein Tillery LLC