Google Denies Deliberately Destroying Proof in US Antitrust Lawsuit

Alphabet’s Google has denied deliberately destroying proof within the US Justice Division’s antitrust lawsuit over the corporate’s search enterprise, in a response to the federal government’s bid for sanctions in federal court docket.

The Justice Division final month alleged Google didn’t protect sure inner company “chat” communications. The DOJ mentioned Google advised US investigators in 2019 that the corporate had put a maintain on permitting auto-deletion of these on the spot messaging information.

Google mentioned in Friday’s submitting that the corporate made “affordable” efforts to protect communication information.

The bid for sanctions stems from lawsuits filed by the DOJ and a gaggle of greater than 30 states accusing Google of illegal exclusionary practices to keep up its search enterprise dominance. Google has denied the claims. The case, filed in 2020, is about to go to trial in September.

A Justice Division spokesperson declined to touch upon Monday. Attorneys for Google and a consultant from the corporate didn’t instantly reply to messages looking for remark.

The Justice Division requested US District Decide Amit Mehta to set a listening to concerning the sanctions, however the court docket has not but scheduled one.

Mehta final yr denied an earlier Justice Division bid for sanctions in opposition to Google over claims it was shielding too many paperwork from assessment.

In its newest bid for sanctions, the DOJ alleged “Google’s each day destruction of written information prejudiced america by depriving it of a wealthy supply of candid discussions between Google’s executives, together with seemingly trial witnesses.”

Google’s attorneys mentioned it was “meritless” to contend the corporate took steps to deprive the plaintiffs from info. Google mentioned it has already disclosed hundreds of thousands of paperwork and “large volumes of information” as a part of the litigation.

© Thomson Reuters 2023​