Google Allegedly Caught Destroying Damning Evidence For High Profile Court Case
The United States Justice Department is alleging that Google knowingly and purposefully deleted conversations between high-ranking officials pertaining to an ongoing antitrust suit against the company.
In the midst of a years-long lawsuit, the United States Justice Department has alleged via a court filing that Google destroyed evidence in an attempt to cover up conversations between high-level employees and executives. While Google has refuted these claims entirely, the court is obligated to investigate them, nonetheless. If the claims are found to be true, Google could face court sanctions or worse.
The Department of Justice’s assertion lies largely on the claim that Google did not alter or suspend its policy, which allowed for the automatic and permanent deletion of employee chat logs when it was supposed to. According to the DOJ, Google’s statement, assuring the government that “auto-deletion” was, in fact, stopped, in line with a federal rule about electronically-stored information, was false. The DOJ claims that Google’s auto-deletion features were left on far longer than they were supposed to be, destroying vital evidence for the DOJ’s case against them.
The original case against Google, opened in 2020, has to do with Google potentially illegally monopolizing the search engine industry and search advertising to further its own ends. The U.S.’s antitrust laws are in place to prevent monopolies and encourage competition within industries, which hopefully limits the power that one single company can have. Antitrust laws have not been tested in court for something like search engines, though, which is one of the reasons the case is moving slowly—lawyers and judges alike are sifting their way through laws that have never been interpreted in these circumstances.
Google strongly opposed the DOJ’s allegations that they’d hidden or purposefully deleted information relevant to the case, just as they opposed the original charges brought against them in the case. According to Reuters, a spokesperson for the company said that they have produced “over 4 million documents” for the case, not to mention those records and files turned over to independent regulatory bodies. If the case judge finds that Google has violated court rules, they could be restricted in their arguments at trial or even be forced to pay a monetary penalty.
This allegation comes on the heels of last year’s DOJ claim that Google kept internal documents from investigators by falsely claiming attorney-client privilege. The tech giant rebuffed those allegations as well, and the judge sided with Google, refusing to penalize them for something that may have happened before the litigation even began. This is a good sign for Google, but only time will tell how the case itself will go.
The antitrust case will go to trial in September, and if it doesn’t go well for Google, it could mean a whole new world of search engines will be available to the public. Other search engines would have more opportunities to become the default on various browsers or mobile devices, and the tech titan would have significantly less control over the advertising that shows up after a search. Though Google argues that it doesn’t stop its competitors—Google believes they’re just truly the best option—it’s hard to refute the absolute monopoly Google has on search engines.
