On November 28, 2025, Justice Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Google LLC v. Dr Globaltech, Inc., 2025 NY Slip Op. 34627(U), dismissing a fraud counterclaim based the plaintiff’s alleged misrepresentation of its financial condition for lack of reasonable reliance because the plaintiff’s finances were disclosed to the public, explaining:
The elements of a cause of action for fraud require a material misrepresentation of a fact, knowledge of its falsity, an intent to induce reliance, justifiable reliance by the plaintiff and damages. A claim rooted in fraud must be pleaded with the requisite particularity under CPLR 3016(b) which is satisfied when the facts suffice to permit a reasonable inference of the alleged misconduct.
DR alleges that Google misled DR into agreeing to Amendment 7 of the MSA through knowingly misrepresenting Google’s financial position and threatening to terminate the agreement to induce DR to amend the agreement. However, DR fails to identify exactly what was said and when or to whom, and fails to identify a specific statement made by Google or what Google’s purportedly significant financial difficulties were. These allegations do not satisfy the particularity requirement.
Next, and perhaps more glaringly, DR fails to allege facts to show that it reasonably relied upon a purported representation regarding Google’s financial position. Google is a publicly traded company, and its financial condition is a matter of public record and could have been verified by defendant through the exercise of ordinary diligence. Indeed, without the benefit of discovery, DR makes allegations in this case about Google’s actual financial condition at the relevant time, indicating that such information was in fact available to it through ordinary diligence. This is not a deficiency that can be cured by amendment. Accordingly, the fraudulent inducement counterclaim is dismissed.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).