Google sued SerpApi within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California, alleging the corporate developed strategies to bypass protections Google deployed to forestall automated scraping of Search outcomes and the licensed content material they comprise.
Why This Case Is Completely different
Not like earlier circumstances that centered on terms-of-service violations or broader scraping strategies, Google’s criticism is constructed on DMCA anti-circumvention claims.
Google argues SearchGuard is a safety measure that controls entry to copyrighted works showing in Search outcomes. The criticism describes SearchGuard as a system that sends a JavaScript “problem” to requests from unrecognized sources and requires the browser to return particular data as a “remedy.”
Google says the system launched in January and initially blocked SerpApi. The criticism claims SerpApi then developed methods to bypass it.
The criticism doc reads:
“Google developed and deployed a technological measure, referred to as SearchGuard, that restricts entry to its search outcomes pages and the copyrighted content material they comprise. In order that it might proceed its free using, nevertheless, SerpApi developed a way of circumventing SearchGuard. With the automated queries it submits, SerpApi engages in all kinds of misrepresentations and evasions with a purpose to bypass the technological protections Google deployed. However every time it employs these artifices, SerpApi violates federal legislation.”
Why DMCA Part 1201 Is The Middle Of The Grievance
Google’s criticism leans on DMCA Part 1201, which targets circumvention of entry controls and in addition the sale of circumvention instruments or companies.
Google is bringing two claims: one centered on the act of circumvention (Part 1201(a)(1)) and one other centered on “trafficking” in circumvention companies or know-how (Part 1201(a)(2)). The criticism says Google might elect statutory damages of $200 to $2,500 per violation.
The submitting additionally argues that even when damages have been awarded, SerpApi “reportedly earns a number of million {dollars} in annual income,” and Google is in search of an injunction to cease the alleged conduct.
What Google Claims SerpApi Did
Google claims SerpApi circumvented SearchGuard in a number of methods, together with misrepresenting attributes of requests (similar to gadget, software program, or location) to acquire authorization to submit queries.
The criticism quotes SerpApi’s founder describing the method as:
“creating faux browsers utilizing a mess of IP addresses that Google sees as regular customers.”
Google estimates SerpApi sends “a whole lot of thousands and thousands” of synthetic search requests every day, and says that quantity elevated by as a lot as 25,000% over two years.
The Licensed Content material Angle
Google’s subject is not only “SERP knowledge.” It facilities on copyrighted content material embedded in Search options by way of licensing and companion relationships.
The criticism says Information Panels “usually comprise copyrighted images that Google licenses from third events,” and it factors to different examples like merchant-supplied product photographs in Purchasing and third-party imagery utilized in Maps.
Google alleges SerpApi “scrape[s] this copyrighted content material and extra from Google” and resells it to clients for a charge, with out permission or compensation to rights holders.
Why This Issues For web optimization Instruments
In case your workflows rely upon third-party SERP knowledge (rank monitoring, function monitoring, aggressive intelligence), this case is value watching as a result of Google is asking for an injunction that would reduce off a supply of automated SERP entry.
Larger distributors usually run their very own assortment techniques. Smaller merchandise, inside dashboards, and customized instruments usually tend to rely upon exterior SERP APIs, which may create a single level of failure if a supplier is pressured to close down or change strategies.
Trade Context: Scraping Lawsuits Are Growing
Google’s submitting follows different litigation over scraping and content material reuse.
Reddit sued SerpApi and different scraping corporations in October over alleged scraping tied to Perplexity, but additionally notes Perplexity isn’t talked about in Google’s lawsuit.
Antitrust Context, Briefly
This additionally lands after Choose Amit Mehta’s August 2024 legal responsibility ruling within the U.S. search antitrust case, with cures ordered in 2025 and appeals anticipated.
That case offers with distribution and defaults. This one is about automated entry to Search outcomes pages and the content material embedded in them. Nonetheless, they each sit inside the identical broader debate about how a lot management platforms can exert over entry and reuse.
What Individuals Are Saying
Some response on X has framed the lawsuit as an existential risk to AI merchandise that rely upon third-party entry to Google outcomes, with one submit calling it “the top of ChatGPT.”
The courtroom submitting and Google’s announcement are narrower, centered on SerpApi’s alleged circumvention of SearchGuard and the resale of copyrighted content material embedded in Google Search options.
SerpApi, for its half, says it would “vigorously defend” the case and characterizes it as an effort to restrict competitors from corporations constructing “next-generation AI” and different functions.
What Comes Subsequent
Google is asking the courtroom for financial damages and an order blocking the alleged circumvention. It additionally needs SerpApi compelled to destroy know-how concerned within the alleged violations.
If the case proceeds, the central subject is whether or not SearchGuard qualifies as a DMCA-protected entry management for copyrighted works, or whether or not SerpApi argues it features extra like bot-management, which it could contend falls exterior Part 1201.