A federal judge blasted Google this week after determining the tech giant intentionally deleted chat records that were sought as part of sweeping antitrust litigation related to its app store, Google Play.
US District Judge James Donato found that the company failure to preserve internal chat logs violated a court order in the case, which is one of several antitrust lawsuits that threaten Google’s dominance over search and digital advertising and more.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs, including 38 state attorneys general, the District of Columbia, Epic Games and Match Group, argue the company’s app store policies are exclusionary and harmful to competition.
Donato noted that internal chat logs between employees were meant to be saved through a “history on” setting and provided to the court as part of the discovery process in the case. Instead, the messages were deleted via an auto-erase function.
The judge said Google “intended to subvert the discovery process” through its actions, according to the Mercury News.
“Google has tried to downplay the problem and displayed a dismissive attitude ill tuned to the gravity of its conduct,” Donato said in the Tuesday ruling.
Donato determined that Google must pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees for the court proceedings related to the deleted chat logs.
Additionally, the judge said a “determination of an appropriate non-monetary sanction requires further proceedings.”
A Google spokesperson pushed back on the judge’s ruling, noting in a statement that the company had “produced over three million documents, including thousands of chats” during the legal proceedings.
“We’ll continue to show the court how choice, security, and openness are built into Android and Google Play,” the spokesperson added.
The judge’s ruling followed a Monday filing by the plaintiffs that alleged “a company-wide culture of concealment coming from the very top, including CEO Sundar Pichai.”
The plaintiffs’ filing noted one chat exchange in which Pichai, while discussing something related to the antitrust case, asked if the “history off” setting could be enabled.
The Google CEO then allegedly unsuccessfully tried to delete the message.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta also took aim at Google after Donato’s ruling.
“Google has now not only violated the trust of Android phone customers by limiting consumer choice and raking in outrageous commissions, but has also violated the discovery process in this case,” Bonta said in a statement.
“This egregious behavior demonstrate the lengths that Google will go to maintain its anticompetitive stronghold on the marketplace,” Bonta added.
The plaintiffs are seeking billions of dollars in damages over their claims that Google has stifled rivals and hurt competition through its app store policies.
The company has denied wrongdoing.
Earlier this month, Google denied intentionally destroying internal chat logs in a separate litigation related to the Justice Department’s antitrust challenge over its search engine dominance.
Donato’s ruling is yet another headache for Google, which, along with other Big Tech firms, faces mounting antitrust scrutiny from state and federal authorities.
As The Post reported, Google suffered an embarrassing misstep earlier this month after its highly touted AI chatbot, Bard, said it supported the DOJ’s antitrust actions against its creator.
With Post wires
