Let’s not mix up the two cases up – the one that paid now is ten years old or so, and it was a class action suit, not a complaint to the FTC. It got settled in court.
Class action suits can take forever, and all the while the accused pays lawyers. The accusers usually get pro bono representation, but pay through the nose because the lawyers collect big time at the end. Most of the money won in group action suits goes to the lawyers. The more people are part of the suit, the less money they get and the more the lawyers get. Also, the individual accuser can submit detailed records of what they lost and then will get more appropriate money. If you just say – “yes I got screwed too” – but don’t submit records, you get whatever is left after the lawyers and the bigger claimants have been paid. Hence my 6 buck settlement.
Complaints settled by the FTC are faster and cost everyone less and the lawyers make less also.
The legal system is far from being free. Class action suits are a way Joe Blow can file a suit that may not otherwise be feasible because of the legal costs.
If you file an idividual suit and you are in the right, the accused pays what they owe you plus maybe money as interest and compensation for lost time or ensuing hardship or whatever, plus all court costs.
Anyway, the two suits were completely different.
The first suit against google was also brought by ad customers, while the second one is made by affiliates who are owed money for services rendered – BIG difference in the law.
Laws concerning customers(consumers) are very different from laws that target reimbursement for services rendered.
So this latest grievance is a precedent for cases where affiliate programs suddenly change terms and conditions and hence breach contract. And it shows that the little clause in all affiliate contracts, that says that the terms can be changed at any time, is useless in real life in the US.
That is a big win for us in the US.