Judges in Amsterdam on Wednesday gave the green light to a Dutch foundation to press ahead with legal action against Google for infringing Android phone users’ privacy.

The court ruled that the foundation and its approach to the case – which involves a litigation funder – is admissible and that it can proceed with the action on behalf of Dutch Android users. More than 100,000 people have signed up to join the class action case since it was launched at the end of 2023.

“You need very deep pockets to expose what Big Tech is trying to hide,” said Frank Peters from law firm Rubicon Impact & Litigation, which is working on the case with the foundation.

“With the help of a litigation funder, our client was able to expose what information Google takes from Android phones, even when you are careful with your privacy settings,” he said. “The Amsterdam court makes clear that it is perfectly fine that  class actions come about like this.”

The Massaschade & Consument foundation said at the end of 2023 that it planned to launch a collective case against Google for illegally collecting information from Dutch Android phone users.

Its research showed that processes used by the phones provided a great deal of information about the users to Google, including which apps they used, their online shopping habits, and even if they were asleep or awake.

This is in contravention of European and Dutch rules, which aim to protect consumers against such practices, the foundation said.

Google said at the time the claims were misleading. “Like some of the other class action suits we have seen in the Netherlands recently, this is speculative and opportunistic,” a spokesman told the FD. 

The Netherlands introduced legislation in 2020 that makes it possible for consumers to take legal action against companies and demand collective damages.