The US Justice Department has alleged that Alphabet Inc’s Google has destroyed internal corporate communications, thereby destroying important evidence in the antitrust lawsuit filed against the company by the United States. Lawyers for the department have asked a federal judge to sanction the company as part of the American government’s antitrust case over Google’s search business. As per a Reuters report, the DOJ on Thursday asserted that Google failed to suspend a policy in a timely manner, allowing for the automatic and permanent deletion of employees’ chat logs.
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It further alleged that, in 2019, the search engine giant “falsely” told the United States that it had suspended “auto-deletion” and was preserving chat communications. The company allegedly said that it was required to do under a federal court rule governing electronically stored information.
The DOJ has asked the federal court to hold a hearing and appropriately sanction the tech giant.
“Google’s daily destruction of written records prejudiced the United States by depriving it of a rich source of candid discussions between Google’s executives, including likely trial witnesses,” wrote DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer in the filing.
However, Google in its statement said that it “strongly” refuted the US DOJ’s allegations.
“Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation,” said a Google spokesperson.
The company also claimed to have produced “over 4 million documents in this case alone, and millions more to regulators around the world.”
If Google is found guilty of a violation of court rules as alleged by the DOJ, penalties can include restrictions on what it is allowed to argue at trial, an order striking a court filing or even a monetary penalty.
This sanctions attempt marks the second time that the US government has sought to punish Google. Last year, the DOJ alleged Google unfairly kept internal documents away from antitrust investigators, claiming they were protected by the attorney-client privilege. Google, at the time, had denied the allegation.
(With inputs from agencies)
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