Google Sued for Nixing Free Workspace Software to Early Adopters

Alphabet Inc.’s Google was sued by an early adopter of its Workplace cloud productiveness software program who claims the corporate reneged on a promise to offer it with free entry to this system for all times.

Google Workplace, previously generally known as Google Apps and G Suite, supplies a bunch of providers together with Gmail, Calendar, Drive for storage and Google Docs for content material creation. Some of the packages are free to all, however enterprise options comparable to customized e-mail addresses and shared Drive storage price further.

The Stratford Company LLC sued on behalf of all early adopters who had been lured to make use of the software program in its early levels, permitting Google to fine-tune it after which promote it for a price. In trade Stratford Company stated the early adopters had been promised a free model of Workspace so long as Google provided it.

In 2012, Google began charging new clients $12 a month to make use of the software program. Then, in 2022, Google notified legacy customers that they’d even be charged, though it later excluded non-business customers of the software program.

“Google’s abandonment of the credo ‘don’t be evil’ is well-illustrated on this case,” Stratford Company said in the complaint, filed Friday in San Jose federal court. “Google, as the better part of a conglomerate worth nearly two trillion dollars, breaks a promise to loyal customers who helped Google develop a profitable product, in order to pad its already grossly outsized profits.”

Stratford firm is in search of class-action standing for all of the early adopters and damages to be decided at trial, however greater than $5 million.

Google didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark, despatched after common enterprise hours.

The case is The Stratford Company LLC v. Google LLC, 5:22-cv-4547, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

This story has been revealed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content. Only the headline has been modified.

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