US Supreme Court rejects Google appeal in lawsuit brought by advertisers

Advertisers claimed the internet company displayed their adverts on ‘low quality’ web sites

The lawsuit will represent hundreds of thousands of advertisers (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Google over a class action lawsuit from advertisers who accused the internet company of displaying their adverts on “low quality” web sites.

The judges decided that the lawsuit, which represents hundreds of thousands of advertisers using Google’s Adwords program, could continue.

Google had tried to argue that a federal appeals court in San Francisco should not have approved the class action because damages should be calculated individually for each advertiser.

The appeals court responded that Google should use a formula to calculate damages based on the average advertiser’s experience.

The court's decision leaves in place a September ruling which allowed Californian advertisers, who used the Adwords program between 2004 and 2008, to press ahead with the lawsuit.

Google is part of Alphabet Inc and generated $67 billion in revenue last year, according to the Associated Press.

Google has been battling multiple lawsuits across the US recently.

Last month the tech giant was cleared in court and escaped $9 billion worth of damages over claims from Oracle that it violated copywrite laws by using a section of its Java code.

In a separate case, a federal judge in Florida ruled that a SEO-marketing company which accused Google of improperly censoring its search results for "economic reasons" has been allowed to go forward with its lawsuit.

It was a rare instance in which Google's "First Amendment" argument - protecting the company's opinions as to what should be included in search results - was dismissed.