GOP suit against Google tossed

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a case filed by the Republican National Committee over improperly routed emails, ruling that Google violated no legislative policy or harmed its users.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Calabretta found Republicans made no proper accusation under California's unfair competition law, or that Google intentionally interfered with economic relations. Additionally, the party didn’t point to any other law Google might have broken, which is essential for an economic relations claim to succeed.

“Accordingly, the court grants Google’s motion to dismiss, this time with prejudice,” Calabretta wrote, meaning the committee can't again amend its complaint.

Calabretta dismissed the initial complaint this past August, unconvinced that Google acted in bad faith when it filtered RNC emails to Gmail users’ spam folders. The GOP responded with an amended complaint, which the judge dismissed Wednesday.

The party had claimed that in the seven months before the 2022 midterm elections Google sent almost all of its fundraising emails to spam folders. This would happen in the days near the end of each month, which the party says cost it significant donations — and done for political reasons.

In dismissing the initial suit, Calabretta said the party should instead focus on a violation of the state’s unfair competition law and accuse the Silicon Valley giant of intentional interference with prospective economic relations.

Calabretta called the unfair competition law expansive and one that covers any act that’s a business practice and against the law.

“The RNC continues to send the same type of emails to Gmail users at the same volume, and there has been no clear explanation for why the filtering has stopped or a binding assurance from Google that it will not begin again,” Calabretta wrote.

However, the party needed to argue a separate, unlawful offense. It can’t claim that the intentional interference violates the unfair competition law, and then use the unfair competition aspect to bolster its intentional interference argument.

The RNC claimed discrimination based on political affiliation violates California’s Unruh Act — which prohibits state businesses from discrimination — though Calabretta wrote that’s not accurate. In fact, the Legislature has amended that act a handful of times over the years and has opted against adding that form of discrimination to it.

Additionally, Calabretta found that he must determine whether Gmail users, not the GOP, suffered harm in deciding whether an unfair competition law violation occurred.

“Google is not alleged to have diverted the emails to force users to pay large sums of money to get their emails back; the users could access those emails at any time,” the judge wrote. “Nor did Google realize any monetary benefit from diverting the RNC’s emails.”

Pivoting to the claim of intentional interference with prospective economic relations, the judge noted the RNC claimed Google’s actions were wrong because they violated industry standards, like its own terms of service.

However, someone’s conduct being “unethical” or a violation of industry standards isn’t enough if there’s no existing method to enforce that standard, the judge wrote.

The party also failed to properly argue the probability of an economic benefit, Calabretta wrote. While the RNC claimed Gmail users requested its emails and had previously donated to the committee, it failed to show whether those people would donate again.

Google praised the ruling in a statement to Courthouse News.

“We will continue investing in spam-filtering technologies that protect people from unwanted emails while still allowing senders to reach the inboxes of users who want their messages,” said Google spokesperson José Castañeda,

A spokesperson for the RNC couldn’t be reached for comment.

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