SerpApi Fights Back: Seeks Dismissal of Google Scraping Lawsuit
▼ Summary
– SerpApi is asking a court to dismiss Google’s lawsuit, arguing Google misuses copyright law to restrict access to public search results.
– The company contends the DMCA protects copyrighted works, not Google’s website or ad business, and that scraping public pages isn’t illegal circumvention.
– Google’s lawsuit alleges SerpApi bypassed bot-detection systems and scraped licensed content from Search features using large bot networks.
– SerpApi cites prior court rulings to argue against creating “information monopolies” over public data and that its actions are lawful data retrieval.
– The case’s outcome could significantly impact how SEO and AI tools access search data, potentially making third-party data harder or easier to obtain.
In a significant legal challenge, SerpApi has formally requested a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Google, contending that the tech giant is misapplying copyright law to control access to publicly available search results. This motion, filed on February 20th by the company’s CEO Julien Khaleghy, marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over data scraping and digital rights. The core of SerpApi’s defense hinges on the argument that Google is improperly invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to protect its advertising business model, not copyrighted works.
Google’s initial complaint, filed in December, accused SerpApi of bypassing technical protections to scrape and resell content from Google Search. The allegations specifically pointed to circumventing bot-detection systems, using rotating bot identities and large networks, and scraping licensed content from various Search features like images and real-time data. SerpApi’s response firmly rejects these claims. The company asserts it does not decrypt systems, disable authentication, or access private data. Instead, Khaleghy states that SerpApi simply retrieves the same information any user can see in a standard web browser without needing to log in, framing the activity as accessing publicly visible pages rather than unlawful “circumvention” under the DMCA.
A central pillar of SerpApi’s legal argument is that Google does not own the underlying content displayed in its search results. The motion suggests that Google’s own admissions reveal its anti-bot systems are designed to safeguard its lucrative advertising operations, not specific copyrighted works. This distinction, SerpApi argues, fundamentally undermines Google’s DMCA claim. To bolster its position, the company cites influential court precedents. It references the Ninth Circuit’s hiQ v. LinkedIn decision, which warned against creating “information monopolies” over public data. It also points to the Sixth Circuit’s Impression Products v. Lexmark ruling to argue that technical measures alone cannot shield content made available to the public.
This lawsuit is part of a broader wave of legal conflicts concerning data scraping, particularly fueled by the rise of AI. The dispute with Google follows closely on the heels of another major case. In October, Reddit sued SerpApi, along with Perplexity, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy, alleging they indirectly scraped Reddit content from Google Search for reuse or resale. Reddit claimed these companies operated at an “industrial scale” and even described setting a “trap” post visible only to Google’s crawler, which later appeared in Perplexity’s results. SerpApi pledged to vigorously defend itself in that suit as well, criticizing Reddit’s language as “inflammatory” and maintaining that public search data should remain accessible.
The potential financial stakes in the Google case are astronomically high, at least in theory. SerpApi has calculated that under Google’s broad interpretation of the DMCA, statutory damages could theoretically reach a staggering $7.06 trillion, a sum the company notes exceeds the entire U.S. Gross Domestic Product. This figure is presented not as a realistic damages demand but as an illustration of the extreme penalties possible if Google’s legal theory were accepted.
The court’s upcoming decision on whether to dismiss Google’s claims or allow them to proceed will have profound implications. The outcome could fundamentally reshape the landscape for SEO platforms, AI development tools, and competitive intelligence software that rely on search engine results page (SERP) data. A ruling in Google’s favor could make accessing third-party search data significantly more difficult and legally risky. Conversely, a victory for SerpApi would strengthen the argument that publicly accessible search results can be lawfully collected and analyzed, potentially ensuring broader access to the open web’s information. The case now awaits judicial review, with the tech industry watching closely to see how the boundaries of data access and copyright will be defined.
(Source: Search Engine Land)
