Google and Yahoo! Gambling Promotion Trial Approaches, Hagens Berman Sobol
Shapiro Announces
Case seeks remedies not included in recent government settlement
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- While Internet search engine giants
Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) recently settled with the
United States government on claims the companies made millions through
promoting illegal online gambling, 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.
The class-action lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in August 2004
alleges that Yahoo! and Google, along with several other popular Web sites,
made hundreds of millions of dollars by allowing advertisements for illegal
online gambling Web sites to appear on the search engine pages.
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.
"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," said Reed Kathrein, lead attorney in the case and partner
at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro (HBSS). "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," Kathrein added.
According to 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.
Under the Federal aiding and abetting statute, procuring participants for
illegal activity, such as online gambling, is unlawful.
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 http://www.hbsslaw.com or call (206) 623-7292.
About Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro
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
http://www.hbsslaw.com.
CONTACT
Mark Firmani
Firmani + Associates
206-443-9357
Mark@firmani.com
SOURCE Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro
Mark Firmani of Firmani + Associates, +1-206-443-9357, Mark@firmani.com, for
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro
