Google scored major legal victory in the UK, courtesy of Supreme Court

Google has won major legal victories in the UK, courtesy of the Supreme Court. The country’s highest court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking compensation for alleged wrongdoing on the part of the company.

Lord Justice Leggatt said prosecutors could not prove the damage done to individuals by Google data collection processes. However, the judge did not tolerate future cases as long as the plaintiffs could not count all the damages.

The judge ruled that the case could be “a fair trial” if the applicant claims that he was injured as a person instead of suing many people. Google has defended its position by claiming that it has “worked to build products and infrastructure that respect and protect human privacy.”

The case has been pending since 2017 in the UK’s lower courts. It was founded by Richard Lloyd, former director of a consumer rights group called What?

The real lawsuit alleges that Google has illegally collected data in cookies on Apple’s Safari web browser or that the “Do Not Track” setting is enabled. The company reportedly collected sensitive data on metrics such as race, ethnicity, health, finance, and gender between 2011 and 2012.

Lloyd wanted Google to pay £3.2 billion ($4.3 billion) to 4.4 million users. The potential penalty would be over billions, while each iPhone owner could receive a small portion of the payment. Lloyd expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court decision.

Although the Supreme Court recommends individual applications, experts say that this may not be financially viable for everyone. The door is now slightly open to prosecute other privacy offenses against Google. So it may not be the last time you hear of such cases. The case has been referred to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. It eventually reached the UK Supreme Court.