Google has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas-based data scraping firm SerpApi, accusing it of illegally harvesting and reselling copyrighted search content.
The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California and centers on claims that SerpApi bypassed Google’s security systems.
Google alleges the company used deceptive methods to scrape protected search results at massive scale.
According to the 13-page complaint, SerpApi generated hundreds of millions of fake search requests.
Google claims these requests mimicked human behavior to evade detection.
The lawsuit also accuses SerpApi of bypassing Google’s newer security layer, known as SearchGuard.
Google said it filed the lawsuit to stop what it calls malicious scraping operations.
The company argues that SerpApi violated the rights of websites and content owners.
Google Details How SerpApi Allegedly Evaded Security Systems
Google alleges SerpApi dramatically increased scraping activity over the past two years.
According to Reuters, query volumes rose by nearly 25,000% during that period.
The lawsuit claims SerpApi relied on bot networks and rotating crawler identities.
Google also alleges the company misrepresented device and location data.
These tactics reportedly helped SerpApi bypass automated security challenges.
Google says SerpApi exploited “shady back doors” to disguise automated systems as real users.
The complaint further claims SerpApi extracted licensed content from Google Search.
This content allegedly included images from Knowledge Panels and real-time search data.
Google says SerpApi then resold this information for profit.
SerpApi Faces Growing Legal Pressure
Google is not the first platform to sue SerpApi. In October 2024, Reddit filed a similar lawsuit.
Reddit accused SerpApi of siphoning content through Google Search to train AI systems.
That lawsuit referenced AI-powered search engines such as Perplexity.
A Reddit spokesperson said the company welcomed Google’s legal action.
The spokesperson warned that bad actors were exploiting the openness of the internet.
SerpApi Pushes Back Against Google’s Claims
SerpApi has denied wrongdoing and said it will defend itself aggressively.
The company argues that it only provides access to publicly visible information.
SerpApi claims users can view the same data directly in a web browser.
In a statement, SerpApi said the lawsuit threatens innovation and competition.
The company argued its services support AI, security, browsers, and productivity tools.
SerpApi framed the lawsuit as an attempt to limit access to public web data.
Google is seeking a permanent court order to stop SerpApi’s scraping operations.
The company is also requesting statutory damages of up to $2,500 per violation.