The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly sued Google in a case related to its search business, and Google said in court documents that it did not intentionally destroy evidence.
Last month the U.S. Justice Department sued Google, which it accused of failing to keep records of internal corporate chats. 2019 when Google had told U.S. investigators that it had banned the deletion of employees’ internal instant messaging records, but Google did not actually do it. In Friday’s filing, Google claimed that the company made “reasonable” efforts to keep records of communications.
The U.S. Justice Department and more than 30 states have asked for sanctions against Google, which they accuse of maintaining a search monopoly by illegal and exclusive means. Google denies the allegations. The case was filed in 2020 and will go to trial in September of this year.
The U.S. Justice Department asked District Judge Amit Mehta to hold a hearing on the sanctions, but the court has not yet scheduled one. Last year the DOJ asked the court to sanction Google for blocking too many documents, but Mehta denied the DOJ’s application.
In its latest sanctions application, the DOJ argued that the practice of deleting written records of internal candid discussions between executives, some of whom may even be trial witnesses, is an important and rich source of information, and that Google is harming U.S. interests on a daily basis.
Google does not agree, claiming that the law accusing Google of taking steps to impede the plaintiffs’ access to information is unfounded and that Google has disclosed millions of documents and vast amounts of data as part of the lawsuit.
