Attorneys who won $425 million verdict against Google request $159 million in fees, costs and awards

On March 30, 2026, the lawyers who won a $425 million jury verdict against Google LLC over app tracking asked a federal judge to award them more than $146 million in attorneys' fees along with $12.4 million in costs and payments for the three plaintiffs who represented the class.

The privacy setting at the center of the case

Anibal Rodriguez, Julian Santiago and Susan Lynn Harvey filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court in July 2020 alleging Google collected personal data from mobile apps even if the user disabled location and tracking features. All three claim they switched off the "Web & App Activity" setting and a related subsetting, which reportedly stop the company from saving records of which apps a person opens and what they do inside them.

The plaintiffs say Google collected the data anyway using two of its products: Firebase, a software toolkit developers build into their apps, and AdMob, Google's mobile advertising network.

Five years of litigation then a jury trial

Google moved to dismiss, fought the plaintiffs' bid to sue as a group and asked the judge to rule in its favor outright. In January 2024, the judge approved close to 100 million Americans to sue as two groups, one for money and one for changes to how Google operates. A year later, the case went to a jury trial.

The trial ran from jury selection on Aug. 18, 2025, through closing arguments on Sept. 2. The next day, the jury found Google liable on two claims alleging the company took someone's private information without permission and awarded the groups $425,651,947. Interest brings the total to $440,345,685.40, and it grows every day Google does not pay.

Class counsel claims it is the largest data privacy verdict a federal jury has ever returned in a class case. Google rewrote its privacy disclosures after the verdict, and the court approved the new language.

What class counsel seeks

The three firms want one-third of the money the jury awarded. This includes:

  • $146,781,895.13 in attorneys' fees
  • $12,422,374.42 in costs, covering experts, depositions and document hosting
  • $135,000 for the three named class representatives

What the fee request means for class members

The money would come out of the class's recovery. If the judge grants the request in full, fees and costs would reduce the $440 million judgment by $159 million, leaving roughly $281 million for a class of close to 100 million people.

Google denies the claims, has asked the court to throw out the jury's verdict and may still appeal so no money will reach anyone until the case ends. The motion says that could take years.

Chief Judge Richard Seeborg will hear the fee request on Aug. 13, 2026, and class members will receive a fresh round of notices.