All the way back in 2005, Minnesota Printing company CLRB Hanson Industries and New Jersey native Howard Stern (no, not the radio host) filed a suit against Google on the grounds that the company was overcharging them and serving more ads than they were supposed to.

Google said that these claims were unfounded The lawsuit stemmed from a dispute about the meaning of "daily budget" in Google's AdWords contract with search marketers According to Google, they only charged up to 120% of marketers' budgets to make up for days when ads were under-delivered.

Either way, the company decided to settle and put the whole thing to bedGoogle agreed to pay up to $20 million in the class-action suit MediaPost quotes a Google spokesperson who says, "Google believes the claims are without merit, but we are pleased to have the litigation behind us and to move forward with our business objectives." They're not exactly shelling it all out in cash though.

Stern and CLRB Hanson Industries will get $20,000 a piece, but everyone else in the suit will receive AdWords ad creditsThe plaintiffs' lawyers are making out better than anyone with $5 million I don't think the settlement is going to break Google's bank.

Of couse they did recently lay off 200 employees