Google Inc. has told the U.S. Supreme Court there was nothing unfair or unreasonable about the tech company’s $8.5 million settlement of a class action in which $5.3 million of the funds go to third parties and none to members of the class.
In urging the justices to deny review in Frank v. Gaos, Mayer Brown partner Donald Falk, representing Google, argued the cy pres-only settlement “will benefit the class as a whole by funding closely targeted projects that are directly connected to the internet privacy issues raised by plaintiffs’ claims.” Falk, a partner in the firm’s Palo Alto, California, office, said the “recipient institutions are of the highest quality and specialize in internet consumer issues.”
