Meet the woman trying to win Britons £100 each from Google

Nikki Stopford is no ordinary class rep. With £7 billion to play for, hers is a role very far from the school playground.
The 53-year-old from Brighton is taking the lead in a class action “opt-out” lawsuit against Google, representing almost everyone in the UK. Netting us about £100 each, should it succeed.
Collective action cases need a “face” to take on the role of “class representative”, often just the visible tip of a far bigger, well co-ordinated, iceberg backed by law firms and litigation funders — those who pay the costs of someone else’s lawsuit in exchange for a share of the winnings.
Articulate and with a background campaigning for consumers, it is easy to see why Stopford is a solid choice to be the poster girl of such claims. It is a lucrative — and growing — business.
The total value of UK class action claims in 2023 was £122 billion, up from £106 billion the year before — a rise of 18 per cent, according to an annual report by the law firm CMS. Most of this growth has come in just the last three years. The same research shows that actions filed at the competition appeals tribunal (CAT) encompass 544 million people, the equivalent of 8.1 actions for each person in the UK.
The massive Google suit filed at the CAT alleges that the tech giant abused its dominant position in the UK search engine market, which led to a trickle-down effect. Advertisers were overcharged, it claims, which in turn increased costs for businesses which were passed on to consumers.
Tech companies make a perfect target for this kind of suit, one solicitor explained, because they have extremely deep pockets and huge numbers of consumers interacting with them.
The case is the latest from Stopford’s business Consumer Voice, which pairs up with law firms and “helps consumers get back money they’re owed from rule-breaking companies”.
Founded last year, it already has two cases as “class reps” — against Google and Sony, as well as raising awareness of many more on its website. Among the extensive list of companies facing these kinds of class suits are Amazon, Apple, BT, Capita, easyJet, Facebook and Mastercard.
• Class actions and the row over litigation funders
Their roots lie in a legal change which happened almost a decade ago. At the start of October 2015, the UK introduced “a class action procedure” for breaches of competition law enabling a class representative to bring a claim in the CAT on behalf of a group of people. One person could represent everyone’s needs. Crucially, these can be “opt-out” claims, which means everyone in the UK who is affected is included in the claim, unless they choose not to be.
Stopford had a long career at Which?, the consumer champion, starting her career in research. With her former colleague Alex Neill, 42, they saw an opportunity in this burgeoning market.
Stopford said: “There was very low public awareness of a lot of these claims. The only way this regime will be a success and will benefit consumers more broadly is if, at the point at which compensation is being distributed, people put their hands up and say, ‘yes, please’.
“Law firms aren’t in the business of engaging with consumers daily. That was something that we’d done within the Which? platform, engaging with millions of consumers, on a daily basis. So we felt that there was a real gap there.”
Profits so far are small. Accounts at Companies House made up to the end of January 2024 list it as a “micro business”, with assets of £18,000 and liabilities of £53,000. That is only six months in and before any cases have reached a ruling.
Consumer Voice purports to support consumers with a broad suite of information: “The benefit for us is having a platform. It gives us a role to raise awareness of these claims, but also to talk to people about the everyday stuff as well.
“What do you do when you’ve got a faulty washing machine, or you’re having problems with your energy supplier or your broadband supplier, bringing all of that together under one roof?”
It makes money by offering consulting services, counselling law firms about which companies to target, personally fronting the cases, raising awareness of them and finding claimants for cases which are “opt in”.
For example it is advertising for people to join a case against Capita, which suffered a data breach. It finds those affected and gets a cut from the law firm per claimant that it refers.
Some cases are raising eyebrows. In one, advertised on the Consumer Voice site, salmon producers are accused of price fixing in a £382 million case which could win costumers who bought salmon between 2015 and 2019 up to £10 each.
However, there is yet to be a big payout to the UK public. All eyes are on BT as the next case which could reach a ruling any day now.
It is accused of charging landline-only customers more and those who bought bundles that included broadband were charged less. If it loses, the telecoms company could have to pay out £1.3 billion to customers who stand to get between £300 and £400 each, potentially as an early Christmas present.
Stopford calls the case “key” and said it could serve to raise massive public awareness of these kinds of action.
Following that: Apple.
Dr Rachael Kent, a senior lecturer in digital economy and society at King’s College London, is leading this £1.5 billion class action claim against the iPhone maker for allegedly overcharging in relation to the App Store. It goes to trial early next year and is due to rule by the end of 2025.
Kent, 37, also describes herself as a “consumer champion”, fronting a podcast called Digital Health Diagnosed. Her business, Dr. Digital Health, is a consultancy for the impact of technology on health, offering workshops and lectures, listing the NHS and the Ada Lovelace Institute as clients.
Stopford is adamant that her business is not opportunistic: “This is a very important tool of consumer protection that enables people who have lost out because companies have broken rules and lost out financially. It is, most of the time, the only route to then being compensated.”
The merry-go-round could soon come to an end as a review of litigation funding by the Civil Justice Council is ongoing, due to be published next year.
It is a very nuanced area. While there are fears of a US-style class action system coming to the UK, the recent sub-postmasters case shows the importance of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
In the meantime, Consumer Voice and its peers will continue to pursue large companies and particularly the tech giants who, in the words of one solicitor “have the money to pay the damages”.