Court turns down Google's appeal in class action lawsuit

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from Google over a class action lawsuit filed by advertisers who claim the internet company displayed their ads on “low quality” web sites.

The justices on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that said the lawsuit representing hundreds of thousands of advertisers using Google’s AdWords program could go forward.

Google argued that a federal appeals court in San Francisco should not have approved the class action because damages must be calculated individually for each company advertiser. The appeals court rejected that argument and approved use of a formula that would calculate harm based on the average advertiser’s experience.

Google runs what is by far the world’s largest digital ad network. It generated $67 billion in revenue last year.