Google Antitrust Ruling: A Cautionary Tale for Companies on Evidence Preservation

In a landmark ruling on Monday, Alphabet’s Google was found to have illegally monopolized web search, drawing significant criticism from U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta for obscuring potential evidence in the case. According to Reuters, the decision not only highlighted Google’s antitrust violations but also issued a stark warning to other companies about safeguarding data.

Judge Mehta, presiding in Washington, D.C., lambasted Google for allegedly failing to preserve internal chats and abusing protections for legal communications. Despite this, he declined to formally sanction the company. The U.S. Justice Department had requested sanctions against Google for what it described as a “systematic destruction” of employee messages and a “flagrant misuse” of the attorney-client privilege, which shields communications with lawyers. Per Reuters, Mehta emphasized that it was not necessary to rule on Google’s evidence handling to decide the antitrust violations.

“Still, the court is taken aback by the lengths to which Google goes to avoid creating a paper trail for regulators and litigants,” Mehta wrote, noting that Google had trained its employees effectively to avoid creating “bad” evidence. Both Google and the Justice Department declined to comment on Mehta’s decision not to impose sanctions regarding the evidence safeguards. Google has denied violating antitrust laws and plans to appeal the ruling. The company also refutes claims of mishandling evidence.

A significant part of the controversy revolves around Google’s practice of automatically deleting employees’ chat messages after 24 hours unless manually preserved by clicking a “history on” button. According to Reuters, Google altered this policy last year to better safeguard chats. Mehta criticized Google’s “communicate with care” initiative, where employees added lawyers to messages and marked them as “attorney/client privileged” to shield them from scrutiny.

Related: Google Loses Antitrust Battle Over Search Engine Dominance

The debate over Google’s chat records has implications in other legal challenges against the tech giant. Last year, a federal judge in California ruled that Google “willfully” failed to preserve relevant chat evidence in a lawsuit filed by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games. Epic Games won that case, accusing Google of excessively controlling the Android app market.

Further legal scrutiny is anticipated later this month when a federal judge in Virginia will consider arguments about evidence destruction in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google’s digital advertising practices. A non-jury trial is set for next month.

Mehta stressed that his decision to avoid sanctioning Google in this instance should not be seen as an exoneration. “Any company that puts the onus on its employees to identify and preserve relevant evidence does so at its own peril,” Mehta wrote. “Google avoided sanctions in this case. It may not be so lucky in the next one.”

The ruling underscores the importance of evidence preservation and the potential consequences of failing to uphold these responsibilities, signaling a broader impact on corporate practices and legal accountability.

Source: Reuters