US Judge Acquits Google in Play Store Gift Card Scam Lawsuit

• A US judge ruled in favor of Google, dismissing the lawsuit brought against it by victims of the Google Play gift card scam.
• The lead plaintiff is Judy May, a victim of this scam who lost $1,000 in 2021.
• The court dismissed all her allegations in the lawsuit because she did not sufficiently plead against Google. She is welcome to sue again.

On Monday (November 4), a federal judge dismissed the class action lawsuit brought against Google by customers who fell to the million-dollar Google Play gift card scam.

In the verdict that spanned for 33 pages, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said that the plaintiffs failed to adequately plead against Google.

This means that nowhere in the lawsuit did she (referring to the lead plaintiff Judy May) sufficiently argue that Google had criminal intent, or that it coerced her into purchasing those cards, or that it received her money through illegal means.

The verdict also added that the lawsuit doesn't make it clear if the information Google had about the case was enough for it to know that funds were stolen.

Last but not least, there's also no indication that the tech giant was knowingly holding onto stolen funds. Therefore, every single claim was dismissed.

Rounding off the verdict, the judge said that the lawsuit doesn't identify any public policy suggesting Google has a duty to refund the scammed victims or that the harm of Google's conduct outweighs any benefits."

About the Lawsuit & the Lead Plaintiff

Judy May is the lead plaintiff in this case. She was scammed 3 years ago, in 2021, when a scammer pretending to be her family called her up and convinced her to spend $1,000 in Google Play gift cards from a local Indiana store. After the purchase, she sent the codes to the scammer via text.

After she realized she had been scammed, she immediately contacted Google. However, the company told her there was nothing they could do as the money was already spent and it was her who made the purchase.

So, in her lawsuit, Judy claimed that Google has something to do with these scams, as it charges a 15-30% commission on all purchases made from Google Play Store.

She further reasoned her accusation by saying that Google tracks the redemption codes (the codes she shared with the scammers). So, the tech giant can allegedly see which Google account was used to redeem the gift card.

Despite having all the information, May claimed that the company refused to go after the scammers. This violates the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the California Unfair Competition Law.

Furthermore, she also accused the company of not taking enough action to prevent such scams in the first place. According to her, Google could at least add a warning in its retail packaging so that first-time customers will be aware that such a scam could happen.

In the end, she demanded compensation (three times her loss) for her ordeal, asked the court to order Google to stop imposing its terms and conditions on victims of the gift card scam and to stop the transfer of any money that was earned through this scam to Google Play accounts.

It's worth noting that having had her lawsuit dismissed, Judy is more than welcome to file again. However, this time she can't ask for 3x of her damages in compensation since the statute of limitations has passed.

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