An early user of Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google’s Workplace cloud office software filed a lawsuit against the firm, alleging that Google broke a commitment to give it a free subscription to the software for life.
In addition, the tech giant is facing a suit from the Stratford Company on behalf of early users lured to use the Google Workspace productivity tools in its early stages. The early adopters had been promised a free version of the product before Google reneged on the promise.
Google sued for charging for Google Workspace productivity software
Gmail, Drive for storage, Calendar, and Google Docs for content production are just a few of the services offered by Google Workplace, previously called Google Apps and G Suite. All users can use some of the services for free, but business features like pooled Drive storage and personalized email addresses are chargeable.
The Stratford Company LLC filed a lawsuit on behalf of all early users who were persuaded to utilize the program when it was still in its infancy, enabling Google to polish it and subsequently charge for it. According to Stratford Company, the early subscribers were guaranteed a free option of Workspace for as long as Google made it available.
Google began charging new users $12 per month to access the program in 2012. Google then informed legacy clients that they would be charged as well in 2022. However, it eventually decided to exclude non-business customers from the program.
Google was accused of breaking a promise to clients
In the lawsuit filed in San Jose’s federal court, Stratford Company stated, “Google’s abandonment of the credo ‘don’t be evil’ is well-illustrated in this case. As the better part of a conglomerate worth nearly two trillion dollars, Google breaks a promise to loyal customers who helped it develop a profitable product to pad its already grossly outsized profits.”
The Stratford company is requesting a class-action lawsuit for all of the early users and undisclosed but higher than $5 million penalties.
An email inquiry for feedback addressed to Google after normal business hours didn’t receive a response immediately.
