US: Plantronics sanctioned $3m for email deletion in antitrust case

A Delaware federal judge has sanctioned electronics company Plantronics Inc. $3 million after finding that a high-ranking executive told his colleagues to delete emails related to an antitrust case and then wiped out thousands of his own electronic communications.

Facing a lawsuit from GN Netcom alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, Don Houston, senior vice president of sales, repeatedly told his co-workers to delete emails referencing sensitive information regarding the company’s competitive activities, according to papers filed in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

It was also discovered that Houston trashed 40 percent of his emails between November 2013 and February 2014—more than a year after GN brought its claims for monopolization in the fall of 2012.

Houston’s behavior came to light in early 2014, when Plantronics’ associate general counsel became concerned about Houston’s document retention, according to the memorandum. However, GN was largely kept in the dark about the scope of Houston’s deletions and an investigation by a forensic expert into the matter.

In total, the expert found, between 952 and 2,345 of the tens of thousands of emails Houston deleted were responsive to GN’s discovery requests and missing from the record. However, an expert later brought in by GN determined that estimate to be on the lower end of what was statistically probable.

Full Content: Delaware Law

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