When it comes to web scraping, few legal battles are as high-stakes or as ironic as the current clash between Google and SerpApi. In a recent development, the data extraction startup SerpApi has asked a court to dismiss Google’s lawsuit against them.
The fight started in late 2025 when Google sued SerpApi. The Mountain View giant alleged that SerpApi’s methods for scraping search results circumvent their security measures. For reference, ChatGPT handles user searches by obtaining data scraped from Google through SerpApi. However, SerpApi’s legal team argues that Google is attempting to use copyright law as a shield to protect its advertising revenue rather than actual creative work.
Scraping the scraper: The irony behind Google’s lawsuit against SerpApi
According to a blog post by SerpApi’s CEO, Julien Khaleghy, the core of their defense is that “no one owns the internet.” SerpApi points out perceived hypocrisy in the lawsuit. The firm notes that Google’s own multibillion-dollar empire was built by scraping and indexing public information across the web.
In its motion to dismiss, SerpApi contends that the DMCA was designed to protect copyright holders, not website operators. Google Search works by surfacing information created by millions of other publishers. So, SerpApi argues that Google doesn’t have the standing to claim copyright protection over that data. They suggest that Google is trying to enforce “access controls” on behalf of the entire internet without the consent of the actual content creators.
Technical measures vs. Monopoly
Google’s complaint mentions that it spends significant resources on bot-detection tools to keep its platform secure and its advertising business healthy. SerpApi responds by stating that its software doesn’t “break” into anything. Instead, it views publicly visible pages just like any standard browser would.
From SerpApi’s perspective, Google’s anti-scraping tools serve as a “back door lock” on a house where the front door—the search results page—is wide open to the public. To support this, they cite legal precedents like the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp. This warned against the creation of information monopolies that could harm the public interest.
Trillions at stake
One of the more eye-catching parts of the legal filing involves the potential damages. SerpApi claims that under Google’s interpretation of the DMCA, the statutory fines could reach a staggering $7.06 trillion. This figure is larger than the GDP of many developed nations. They argue that such a result proves Congress never intended for the DMCA to be used in this context.
For now, the case sits with the federal court. Google aims to protect its infrastructure and business model, while SerpApi says positions itself as a defender of a free and open internet. As the legal process goes on, the industry is keeping a close eye on whether “publicly available” really means accessible to everyone or if tech giants can legally keep the data they’ve indexed to themselves.
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