Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Google LLC (No 2) [2022] FCA 1476

Federal Court of Australia

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Google LLC (No 2) [2022] FCA 1476 File number: NSD 816 of 2020

Judgment of: YATES J

Date of judgment: 9 December 2022

Catchwords: CONSUMER LAW – alleged contraventions of ss 18, 29, and 34 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) – where Google displayed a notification to Account Holders seeking their consent to various changes to the settings in their Google Accounts (Notification) – whether, by omission, Google's conduct in asking for consent, through the medium of the Notification, was misleading or deceptive (or likely to mislead or deceive), or liable to mislead the public – whether Google failed to inform, or adequately inform, Account Holders that it was seeking their consent to: combine or associate their personal information with their activity on Third Party Websites and Apps; allow that information to be used to create or generate personalised advertisements for Google Partner Websites and Apps; and deliver those advertisements across both Google Services and Google Partner Websites and Apps on any device – where Google made a representation that it would not reduce an Account Holder's rights under Google's Privacy Policy without obtaining their explicit consent – where Google made a Privacy Update – whether it was necessary for Google to inform Account Holders that giving their consent to the proposed changes affected their privacy – whether Account Holders' privacy rights were in fact reduced – where alleged contraventions of ss 18, 29, and 34 of the ACL not made out – originating application dismissed

Legislation: Australian Consumer Law (Sch 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) ss 18, 18(1), 29(1)(g), 29(1)(m), 34 Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) s 191