Skip to main content
NOPE
Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed

Brazilian court orders Google to pay R$20,000 after its AI falsely named a businessman as owner of a betting site, leaving him blamed for its scams

A civil court in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state, ordered Google Brasil to pay a businessman R$20,000 in moral damages in a sentence dated 12 May 2025. The judge found it undisputed that the company's artificial intelligence had pointed to him in searches as the owner of a gambling platform called 7 Games, with which he had no connection, as the company register showed. The court found that the false information damaged his reputation: he was being held responsible for scams on the betting platform and received threats by email from its customers. The court had earlier granted an injunction to remove the association, and the sentence confirmed it. Google argued that it does not host the material shown in its results and only organises pages available on the web; the judge held Google responsible because the information came from its own platform rather than from a linked page. Conjur, a legal-news site, identifies the tool as Gemini and reports that the association began after an interview in which he recommended seven games; the sentence names no product. Whether Google appealed is not reported.

AI system
Gemini (reported)
Occurred
2024
Reported
6 June 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Reputational Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Work · Justice · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 4 documented, 1 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Google's artificial intelligence tool in search, identified by Conjur as Gemini; the sentence refers only to the defendant's artificial intelligence

Reported harm

The court found that Google's AI falsely named the businessman as owner of a betting site, that this damaged his reputation, that he was being blamed for scams on the platform and that he received threats by email from its customers.

Outcome

Unknown

First-instance sentence of the 5th Civil Court of Niterói (case 0837991-29.2024.8.19.0002), dated 12 May 2025: claims upheld, the earlier injunction confirmed, R$20,000 moral damages (he sought R$50,000) plus costs and 10% fees. No appeal or final decision is reported.

What remains unknown

  • Which Google AI product produced the answer: Conjur says Gemini, Migalhas and the sentence say only Google's artificial intelligence.
  • When in 2024 the false association first appeared: Conjur dates the interview that preceded it to August of the previous year and the injunction to October, without a year; the case number shows the suit was filed in 2024.
  • Whether Google appealed and whether the sentence became final.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The sentence finds it undisputed that Google's artificial intelligence named the plaintiff in searches as owner of the 7 Games betting platform, a false statement generated and transmitted by Google's own platform rather than a linked page, and connects it to the reputational harm, the blame for the platform's scams and the email threats he received. The product name Gemini comes from Conjur only.

5 claims: 4 documented, 1 reported. What the statuses mean

Documented The court found it undisputed that the defendant's artificial intelligence pointed to the plaintiff in searches as the owner of a gambling platform called 7 Games, with which he had no connection, as the company's register of partners showed.

Causal attribution. The court's finding in the sentence.

  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'resta incontroverso nos autos que a inteligência artificial da ré apontou em pesquisas que o autor é o proprietário de uma plataforma de jogos de azar, denominada “7 games”. No entanto, o autor não possui qualquer ligação com a empresa, o que se comprova no quadro social da empresa.'
  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'após sua inteligência artificial vincular, de forma equivocada, o nome do empresário'
Documented The court found that the false information was Google's responsibility because its own platform transmitted it, rather than a linked page as in ordinary search, and that it damaged his reputation: he was being blamed for scams on the betting platform and had received threats by email from its customers.

Causal attribution. The court's findings on causation and harm.

  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'as informações inverídicas fornecidas pela plataforma da ré, inverossímeis, são de responsabilidade da ré e causaram danos ao autor, que recebeu ameaças por e-mail de consumidores das plataformas de apostas'; 'é evidente que a falha da empresa ré comprometeu a reputação do autor, visto que ele vem sendo responsabilizado por golpes aplicados na plataforma de apostas, além das ameaças recebidas'
  • conjur.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Vale ressaltar, ainda, que a informação passada foi indicada pela plataforma da empresa ré, ou seja, entende-se que foi a ré a responsável pela transmissão, não ocorrendo uma indicação de link como ocorre no Google Search'
Documented Google argued that it does not host the material shown in its results and only organises pages already available on the internet, and raised loss of object and lack of standing; the court rejected the preliminary objections.

Causal attribution. Google's defence as the sentence records it, and the court's ruling on it.

  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'alegando as preliminares de perda de objeto e ilegitimidade passiva. Afirma que não hospedam o material apontado em seus resultados, portanto, não tem poder para excluir o conteúdo da internet. Pontua, ainda, que a ferramenta apenas organiza as páginas já disponíveis na internet.'; 'é evidente que a parte ré é legítima, visto que o alegado dano é proveniente da inteligência artificial da empresa ré.'
Documented The sentence, dated 12 May 2025, confirmed the earlier injunction and ordered Google to pay R$20,000 in moral damages, plus costs and fees.

Causal attribution. The operative part of the sentence.

  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Confirmo a tutela antecipada, deferida em decisão de id 147485068'; 'Condeno a parte ré ao pagamento de R$20.000,00 (vinte mil reais), a título de compensação por danos morais'; 'NITERÓI, 12 de maio de 2025.'
Reported Conjur identifies the tool as Gemini and reports that the AI began associating the businessman with the 7Games site after an interview he gave in August of the previous year (2024, counting from the article's date of 6 June 2025) in which he recommended seven games to readers.

Causal attribution. The outlet's account; the sentence names no product and does not mention the interview.

  • conjur.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'condenou o Google a indenizar um empresário em R$ 20 mil devido a um erro do Gemini, a ferramenta de inteligência artificial da plataforma'; 'A partir dessa entrevista, a ferramenta de IA do Google passou a associá-lo de forma equivocada ao site 7Games.'; 'em agosto do ano passado, concedeu uma entrevista recomendando sete games aos leitores'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Portuguese on 2026-11-02; translation by the research agent, an AI. Legal-news report of the sentence; it adds the product name Gemini and the interview background, which the sentence does not contain. Applies to s1.

Read in Portuguese on 2026-11-02; translation by the research agent, an AI. Legal-news report of the same sentence, linking to it. Applies to s2.

Sentence PDF published by Migalhas (a print of the TJRJ PJe public consultation page, three pages), read in full in Portuguese on 2026-11-02; translation by the research agent, an AI. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Brazil.

The 5th Civil Court of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, decided the case against Google Brasil. The sources do not say where the false answers were shown or where the businessman lives.

Reviewed for publication 2026-11-02: Published on the first-instance sentence itself, read in full, which finds that Google's AI falsely named the businessman as owner of a betting site and that this damaged his reputation and led to threats, and awards damages. Contextual relation; the case adds a merits judgment awarding civil damages for an AI-generated false claim about a person.

People described

A businessman in the electronic games sector

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the businessman whom the AI named as owner of the betting site. People who saw the answer are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-false-claim-about-person#betting-site#civil-damages#google#court-judgment

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Brazilian court orders Google to pay R$20,000 after its AI falsely named a businessman as owner of a betting site, leaving him blamed for its scams. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-niteroi-court-orders-google-to-pay-damages-after-its-ai-named-businessman-as-owner-of-betting-site

BibTeX

@misc{2024_niteroi_court_orders_google_to_pay_damages_after_its_ai_named_businessman_as_owner_of_betting_site,
  title = {Brazilian court orders Google to pay R\$20,000 after its AI falsely named a businessman as owner of a betting site, leaving him blamed for its scams},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-niteroi-court-orders-google-to-pay-damages-after-its-ai-named-businessman-as-owner-of-betting-site}
}

Related cases

Low Gemini (reported)

Boca Raton father says a Lyft driver's damage-fee photo was AI-generated; Lyft says it offered reimbursement and removed the driver

A Boca Raton, Florida father told WPBF, WPTV and ABC News that after his teenage daughters took a Lyft home from the beach (on Saturday 16 May 2026, according to ABC News), he was charged a $75 damage fee because the driver reported that the riders had left a mess. Lyft customer service told him the driver had sent pictures. One daughter pointed out a Gemini logo in the corner of the photo, which the family took as showing it was AI-generated. The father says Lyft then agreed, apologised and blocked the driver. Lyft's statements say it reviewed the rider's concerns, offered reimbursement and, per its later statements, permanently removed the driver; they do not say the photo was AI-generated.

Medium Google AI Mode

German court bars Google from repeating an AI Mode answer that falsely called a doctor a convicted sex offender

In late August 2026 a colleague told a German physician, until that summer a chief physician at a hospital, that searching his name with the word for suspension in Google's AI Mode produced what read like a factual report: that he had been suspended and dismissed and had received a suspended sentence for sexual coercion. According to legal news site beck-aktuell, none of it concerned him; the AI had apparently attached facts about another former senior employee of the same hospital to his name, and the newspaper articles it linked as sources did not name him. Google said it had reviewed his complaint and would take no action, and a lawyer's warning letter also failed. On 24 September 2026 the Aachen Regional Court issued a preliminary injunction (8 O 268/26) barring Google Ireland Limited from spreading the claims through AI Mode, finding that they violated his personality rights and that Google is responsible for its AI search answers.

High Grok

Grok falsely named former officer Christi Hill as an arresting officer in the Henry Nowak case; she is in hiding after threats

In early June 2026, social media posts and the AI chatbot Grok falsely identified former Hampshire police constable Christi Hill as one of the 'primary officers shown' in bodycam footage of the December 2025 arrest of Henry Nowak, who died after being stabbed. Hill had left the force in April 2024 — more than a year before the murder — and says the misidentification stems from a national police bravery award photo being misattributed. After 'endless threats' and 'threats of violence' she is hiding in a safe house. BBC Verify separately obtained evidence that serving officer Tristan Parsons, also wrongly accused online, was not in the country at the time; the Home Secretary said a misidentified male officer had to move out of his home. Hampshire Constabulary confirmed an unrelated officer was misidentified and received death threats.

Medium Google AI Overviews

Google AI Overview reportedly described fiddler Ashley MacIsaac as a convicted sex offender, and a concert was cancelled

In December 2025 Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac said a First Nation north of Halifax cancelled his concert planned for 19 December after reading a Google AI-generated search summary that said he had convictions for sexual offences. He says the statements were false and came from online articles about another man in Atlantic Canada with the same last name. The First Nation apologised in writing and Google amended the search results. MacIsaac says he feared for his safety and worries about other lost work. In a statement of claim filed in February 2026 in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice he seeks damages of 1.5 million from Google (US dollars in the Globe and Mail copy of the Canadian Press story, no currency stated in the CBC copy). None of its claims was tested in court. CBC News reported in August 2026 that a notice of discontinuance ending the lawsuit was filed on 29 July 2026; MacIsaac gave no reason, Google did not comment, and no settlement is reported.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents