If you're in the EU or Switzerland, your local laws and courts apply to any dispute with Google. If you're anywhere else, including the US, all legal disputes must be filed in California courts under California law.
Expanded to explicitly cover EEA/Switzerland users with choice of law and jurisdiction in their country of residence; removed exclusive jurisdiction language and Santa Clara County specification for non-EEA users.
View full change record →US users outside California must travel to or retain California counsel to pursue any legal claim against Google, which effectively deters individual consumers from seeking legal redress for relatively minor harms.
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Compare across platforms →For users outside the EU, mandatory California jurisdiction means bringing a legal claim against Google requires litigating in a distant state, creating a practical barrier to legal recourse for most consumers.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision implicates the EU Brussels I Regulation (Recast) (No. 1215/2012) and Rome I Regulation on applicable law, which guarantee EU consumers the right to sue in their home country and under home country law — rendering the California jurisdiction clause unenforceable for EU/EEA users. UK users retain equivalent protections under UK private international law post-Brexit. For US users, mandatory forum selection clauses are generally enforceable (Bremen v. Zapata, 407 U.S. 1 (1972)) though some states impose limits for consumer contracts. California's own consumer protection framework (CLRA) restricts enforcement of out-of-state forum selection clauses against California residents.
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