Lawyers score $2M in kids’ privacy lawsuit against Google

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(Legal Newsline) – Lawyers who filed a class action lawsuit against Google over children’s privacy will get about $2 million, a federal judge has ordered.

California federal judge P. Casey Pitts on Oct. 23 issued his ruling on the fees requested by the firms Silver Golub & Teitell and Lexington Law Group, finding they should be paid $2,062,500 - one-quarter of the settlement amount. They had asked for nearly $2.5 million after landing the $8,250,000 settlement.

“The challenges posed by novel legal issues, complicated facts, difficulties of proof, as well as the resources of Google and its aggressive approach to litigation, created a meaningful risk that the settlement class and settlement class counsel would ultimately receive nothing,” Pitts wrote.

“Settlement class counsel bore significant risk and as of June 25, 2026, reports working 1,651.8 hours on a contingent basis.”

Pitts gave final approval to the settlement the same day. The suit was filed in 2023 and alleged Google and AdMob Google violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits websites from collecting personal identifying information for children under 13 years old without parental consent.

The Designed for Families program on Google Play let parents and children find age-appropriate content. It was introduced in 2015 and three years later, Google had put nearly 6,000 apps on Play that were downloaded billions of times.

But the software allowed Google to collect data that was used for advertisements, the lawsuit says. The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office sued Google years ago, leading to a 2021 settlement worth $5 million and a change to business practices.

The ensuing class action got the green light in 2024 when Pitts denied Google’s motion to dismiss.

The settlement class is defined as all Americans who were younger than 13 years old when they downloaded or use an app from Google Play and rom whom Google allegedly collected, used or disclosed any personal information from April 1, 2015, to the present.