Portuguese court admits class action lawsuit against Google

The Lisbon District Court has admitted the class action lawsuit filed by Ius Omnibus against Google in March for collecting and processing users' personal data, the consumer protection association said Monday.

According to the consumer association, Google collects and processes personal data from users of all its products and services, residing in Portugal, aged 13 or over without their consent, which led to the filing of a class action lawsuit in March.

Now, after the Public Prosecutor's Office has requested that the action continue, the Lisbon District Court has ordered the citation of the Google group companies (Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and GGLE Portugal) and the represented consumers.

In the association's view, this is a step that "paves the way" for Portuguese consumers "harmed by the intrusive and unlawful collection and processing" of their personal data by the US company "to have access to justice and compensation for the damages caused by these practices."

Ius accuses Google of harming its consumers by collecting and processing their personal data on a massive and unlawful basis , by failing to inform them about the purposes and operations of processing that data.

The data would be transferred to the United States of America “without a valid basis and without adopting adequate measures to ensure that consumers' personal data benefit from a high level of protection”.

According to Ius, this action covers all consumers with habitual residence in Portugal who have used Google products and services after March 1, 2012 and are 13 years of age or older.