Judge in Google privacy class action awards lawyers $147 million in legal fees
A federal judge approved $147 million in legal fees for attorneys in a privacy class action lawsuit against Google. The award reflects the scale of the settlement and the compensation going to the lawyers who brought the case.
Why this matters: Class actions are often the only tool that can hold a company like Google accountable for privacy violations at scale. But a $147 million fee award is worth looking at carefully. The people whose data was actually misused get a fraction of what the lawyers collect. That is not an argument against class actions. It is an argument for paying attention to who really benefits when a big tech privacy case settles. If the payout to individuals is small, the deterrent effect on the company may be too.
Who should care: General readers · Privacy officers · Policy
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