Google Ads Claim Frequently Asked Questions

So there's a long line of Supreme Court precedent and a statute at the federal level called the Federal Arbitration Act. And arbitration is essentially an alternative to the judicial system. It's an alternative to courts. So companies back in the day would enter into agreements with other companies, sophisticated players, and say, let's not go through the court process. That takes too long. Judges are backed up. Juries are unpredictable. Let's go to an alternative dispute resolution process where we're going to have some expert adjudicators, particularly in an area like antitrust, where you need specialized skills. And we will more quickly and efficiently resolve our disagreements. So arbitration is basically a contract to not have your fight resolved in court with a judge and jury, but instead to have it resolved by a professional organization that you designate. Oftentimes, these organizations have a bunch of retired judges or retired lawyers who worked in the practice area of relevance who are your ultimate decision maker. But none of that is required. It's whatever the parties decide to agree to for arbitration, so long as it has sufficient fairness associated with it and basic due process protected. You can contract for whatever you want. And the more sophisticated of a player you are, i.e., if you're a big company that can take care of yourselves, the more the courts are willing to let you contract for the dispute resolution process that you bargained for. So Google, as you say, has the small print, the mandatory arbitration provision, and the advertisers agreed to it. And so we're perfectly content to follow Google's contract and honor that small print and represent these companies in the alternative venue that Google chose.