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The U.S. government accused Google of falsely notifying the government that it used chat auto-delete features to destroy evidence required in an antitrust lawsuit and stopped enforcing the auto-delete. I asked for sanctions.
The U.S. motion for sanctions against Google seeks a judgment that Google violated rules against theft of evidence and an “evidence hearing to assess appropriate sanctions to remedy Google’s theft.” The United States also sought an order compelling Google to “provide Google with detailed information about its administrators’ historical off-chat practices through written declarations and oral testimony prior to any requested hearings.” was filed sealed on February 10 and opened yesterday.
“Google deliberately failed to store relevant evidence. The daily destruction of relevant evidence has led Google to set a company-wide default to delete history-off chat messages every 24 hours, and then When we chose to keep the admin auto-delete setting, it was inevitable: a legal hold,” an antitrust attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a memorandum supporting the move.
Starting in 2019, Google “was obligated to store employee chat messages” for litigation purposes, according to the US motion. According to a U.S. document filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, “Google’s daily destruction of written records was the result of an abundance of candid discussions among Google’s management, including those believed to be witnesses to the trial. It deprived the United States of valuable sources of information and brought the United States to a disadvantage.”
According to the US, Google’s automatic removal lasted until February 8th. “Surprisingly, Google’s daily spalling this week“When the US indicated it would submit this motion, after months of awarding, Google finally ‘set history on forever’ and promised to save employee chat messages. bottom.”
Twenty-one states involved in lawsuits against Google have also filed motions seeking similar sanctions. The motion came in a lawsuit filed in October 2020, in which the United States and states found Google illegally maintaining its search and search advertising monopoly through anti-competitive and exclusive practices. claims. “
Epic Games also seeks sanctions for chat deletion
Google’s “history off” chats, which are deleted every 24 hours, were previously the subject of an antitrust lawsuit over the Google Play store. In that case, plaintiffs Epic Games and the Utah Attorney General hope the court will “issue an adverse inference jury order to remedy Google’s appropriation of Google Chat.” The motion is still pending.
Epic Games said, “Google has accused Google of systematically plagiarizing relevant evidence because Google Chat’s enterprise default setting is ‘history off,’ but that is no excuse. No,” he writes. “The administrator of Google Chat (an application developed by Google) could have changed this default setting at any time for all administrators. Google has never claimed otherwise. However, Google has chosen not to change the setting, and has chosen not to do anything to ensure that its administrator changed this default setting on his workstation.”
