San Francisco, California - (Website Hosting Directory) - January 7, 2008 - Google and Yahoo! recently settled class-action lawsuits filed in California Superior Court in August 2004 that allege that they, with several other web sites, made hundreds of millions of dollars by allowing advertisements for illegal online gambling web sites to appear on the search engine pages.
Under the Federal aiding and abetting statute, procuring participants for illegal activity, such as online gambling, is unlawful. A civil trial set to begin on February 11 will further test the liability of these companies in California, and will ask the courts to further restrict the ability of these Internet giants from similar action in the future.
Reed Kathrein, lead attorney in the case and partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro (HBSS) noted, ''We believe these companies have been profiting from this illegal practice for more than a decade, and we believe the agreement with the government does not go far enough. The settlements are a great victory and a tacit admission by these online advertisers, but there is still more work to do in holding these companies accountable for the harm they have done to Californians, and to keep them and others from continuing these practices. Given the amounts the huge profits we believe they made, we believe these relatively small forfeiture penalties will not deter them or others in the future.''
While the multi-million dollar settlements reached on December 19, 2007 resolve federal criminal charges against Google and Yahoo!, the companies neither contest nor admit they received payments from Internet gambling advertisers, according to published reports.
According to Mr. Kathrein, he intends to argue for injunctive and declaratory relief at the February trial in hopes to stop Google and Yahoo! from allowing the ads to appear on their sites in the future, and forcing the companies to acknowledge that the practice is illegal.
The complaint also calls for disgorgement of profits the companies earned from online advertisers looking to attract gamblers to their Web sites -- a figure expected to exceed hundreds of millions of dollars. The complaint seeks to have the disgorged profits go to benefit education and rehabilitation efforts aimed at gambling addiction. The court previously decided, however, that state laws prohibit the court from aiding gamblers in recovering money, an issue HBSS plans to appeal after the trial.
To learn more information about this case or to come forward as a witness who used Internet advertisements to reach illegal gambling Web sites, visit the HBSS Web site at www.hbsslaw.com or call (206) 623-7292.
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is based in Seattle with offices in Chicago, Cambridge, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. Since 1993, it has developed a nationally recognized practice in class-action and complex litigation. Among recent successes, HBSS has negotiated a $300 million settlement in the DRAM memory antitrust litigation; a $340 million recovery on behalf of Enron employees; a $150 million settlement involving charges of illegally inflated charges for the drug Lupron, and served as co-counsel on the Visa/Mastercard litigation which resulted in a $3 billion settlement, the largest anti-trust settlement to date. HBSS served as counsel in an $850 million Washington Public Power Supply settlement and represented Washington and 12 other states against the tobacco industry that resulted in the largest settlement in history. For a complete listing of HBSS cases, visit www.hbsslaw.com.
With the largest index of websites available on the World Wide Web and the industry's most advanced search technology, Google Inc. delivers the fastest and easiest way to find relevant information on the Internet. Google's technological innovations have earned the company numerous industry awards and citations, including two Webby Awards; two WIRED magazine Readers Raves Awards; Best Internet Innovation and Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech from TIME magazine; and Editor's Pick from CNET. A growing number of companies worldwide, including Yahoo! and its international properties, Sony Corporation and its global affiliates, AOL/Netscape, and Cisco Systems, rely on Google to power search on their websites. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google's investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sequoia Capital.
For more information Google, please visit: www.google.com.
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