A planned 3.2 billion pound ($4.3 billion) British class action against Google has been rejected by the UK Supreme Court over allegations that the internet giant illegally tracked the personal information of millions of iPhone users, Metro reported.
On Wednesday, Britain's highest justices unanimously granted Google's appeal against the country's first such data privacy case, upsetting a slew of similar claims pending against businesses like Facebook and TikTok.
The groundbreaking case, sponsored by consumer rights activist and former Which? magazine director Richard Lloyd, sought to expand Britain's class action process to encompass compensation claims for claimed data misuse - even if there is no evident financial loss or hardship.
Lloyd claimed that between 2011 and 2012, Google secretly took more than 5 million Apple iPhone users' personal data by circumventing default privacy settings on Safari browsers to track internet browsing histories and using it for commercial purposes. Lloyd was backed by a commercial litigation funder.
"We are deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court has failed to safeguard the public from Google and other Big Tech companies that break the law," he said.
His lawyer, Milberg's James Oldnall, described it as a "sad day" when "corporate greed is prioritised over our right to privacy."
Google stated that it has spent years focusing on products and infrastructure that respect and preserve people's privacy, and that the claim was based on events that occurred a decade ago and were dealt with at the time.
British business also welcomed the ruling. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said allowing such a case could have put a chill on investment and impacted firms across the economy.
“The Supreme Court has recognised that the ‘loss of control’ of an inpidual’s personal data is not, in and of itself, sufficient to found a collective action for compensation,” said Kate Scott, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance.
“Data litigation will undoubtedly continue, but with a focus on claims where actual damage has been suffered – which is the right outcome for all businesses, and not just big Tech like Google.”
Under a U.S.-style representative or class action, a group of people affected by the same issue are represented by a single person and are automatically part of a lawsuit, without inpidually signing up, unless they opt out.
Proponents of such lawsuits say they allow access to justice for those with small inpidual claims or without sufficient financial resources to take on often large, powerful companies.
Critics say such lawsuits fuel claims without merit, driven by opportunistic commercial litigation funders and law firms.
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