Google Successfully Amends Its AdWords TOS to Add Arbitration Clause–Trudeau v. Google
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The court explained how Google purported to impose the new terms on advertisers:
Google gave notice of the 2017 TOS to the AdWords advertisers through multiple means, including through a direct email to the advertisers, a public blog post, and an alert on the advertisers’ AdWords account. Each notice directed the advertisers to a webpage where they could review and accept the modified terms, which were displayed in a single embedded window. Above the TOS window was the following admonition: “Please review these Terms carefully. They include the use of binding arbitration to resolve disputes rather than jury trials or class actions. Please follow the instructions in the terms below if you wish to opt out of this provision.” Advertisers were then prompted to accept or decline the terms.
Google notified Trudeau of the 2017 TOS by both email and an alert in his AdWords account. Trudeau accepted the 2017 TOS on September 15, 2017 and did not attempt to opt out of the arbitration provision.
There’s a lot not to like about how Google handled things. The original 2013 TOS expressly blocked retroactive changes, yet that’s exactly what Google purported to do with the 2017 arbitration provision. Perhaps more surprisingly, Google gets away with it!
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