Alphabet’s Google has denied willful destruction of evidence in the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust lawsuit over the company’s search business in response to the government’s sanctions filing in federal court.
Last month, the Justice Department said the company failed to preserve some internal company chat communications. The DOJ said the company told US investigators in 2019 that the company had suspended its permission to automatically delete these IM logs.
Google said in a statement Friday that the company has made “reasonable” efforts to preserve communications logs.
The call for penalties stems from lawsuits filed by the DOJ and a group of more than 30 states accusing Google of illegal deletion practices to maintain its dominance in the search industry. Google has denied the allegations. The case, started in 2020, is expected to go to trial in September.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on Monday. Google lawyers and a company representative did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The Justice Department has asked District Judge Amit Mehta to schedule a hearing on the penalties, but the court has yet to schedule one.
Last year, Mehta denied an earlier Justice Department fines request against Google over allegations that it was shielding too many documents from scrutiny.
In its latest effort, the DOJ said that “Google’s daily destruction of written records has harmed the United States by depriving it of a rich source of candid discussions among company executives, including likely trial witnesses.”
The company’s lawyers said it was “shameful” to say the company took steps to deprive the plaintiffs of information. Google said it has already released millions of documents and “huge volumes of data” as part of the litigation.
Source: Terra
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