Milberg Lawsuit Accuses Google of Misleading TrueView Advertisers

Parties Interested in Joining the Case Can Contact Milberg Attorneys

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- If a video advertisement autoplays for a bot on an unlisted webpage, does anyone hear it?

Apparently, they do—and Google "charges advertisers hefty amounts for the privilege of autoplaying their advertisements into the void," according to a putative class action filed by attorneys for Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman ("Milberg").

Google charges advertisers for proprietary "TrueView" video ads that appear on YouTube, apps, and websites. When a TrueView ad is served, users are asked with a visual prompt if they want to skip the ad after 5 seconds. Google policy states TrueView ads must be skippable, audible, and cannot be initiated by passive user scrolling.

Media buyers only pay for actual ad views—not impressions—Google promises. Google also tells advertisers TrueView ads will run on high-quality sites, before the page's main video content, with the audio on, and that advertisers will only pay for ads that are not skipped.

Milberg's lawsuit alleges, however, that Google broke these promises and, in the process, unlawfully enriched itself while robbing businesses of billions of dollars spent on digital ads.

"Many of the TrueView advertisements are, in fact, displayed as muted, auto-playing videos either 'out-stream' or obscured on independent sites," the lawsuit states.

Ads were played on sites with copyright violations, "made-for-advertising" sites, sites delisted for copyright and piracy violations, and were even served to Google's own web-crawling bots, the lawsuit also claims.

As evidence, the suit cites a report from Adalytics, an ad campaign analytics firm, suggesting that Google has violated its TrueView policies for years, serving ads on hundreds of thousands of low-quality websites and apps. For some brands, between 42 – 75% of TrueView ad spend was on video ads that did not meet Google's standards, Adalytics found, including ads not meeting Google's definitions of "in-stream."

The lead plaintiffs in the case, like many of the marketers who spoke to Adalytics, say they would not have purchased TrueView skippable in-stream video ads if they had known beforehand the true nature of Google's deceptive policies. They are seeking refunds from Google, in addition to punitive damages and attorneys' fees, for themselves and all advertisers who paid for TrueView in-stream advertisements.

Milberg, a national leader in class action litigation, is seeking clients who paid Google to run advertisements through the TrueView program and believe they were misled about the service.

Inquiries should be sent to Gary M. Klinger ([email protected] / 866-252-0878).

About Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC:
For over 50 years, Milberg and its affiliates have been fighting to protect victims' rights and have recovered over $50 billion for clients. A pioneer in class action litigation, Milberg is widely recognized as a leader in defending the rights of victims of corporate wrongdoing.

SOURCE Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC