Google destroyed evidence and repeatedly gave false info to court, finds US federal judge

A federal court decided yesterday that Google purposefully destroyed evidence and must be sanctioned, rejecting the company’s claim that it was not required to automatically keep private chats involving workers subject to a judicial hold. US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco said in his order that Google “fell strikingly short” in its duties to preserve records. The ruling is part of a multidistrict litigation that includes a consumer class action with as many as 21 million residents; 38 states and the District of Columbia, and companies including Epic Games Inc and Match Group LLC. Google to be sanctioned? “Following substantial briefing by both sides and an evidentiary hearing that included witness testimony and other evidence, the Court concludes that sanctions are warranted,” wrote US District Judge James Donato. Later in the decision, he wrote that “Google intended to subvert the discovery process, and that Chat evidence was ’lost with the intent to prevent its use in litigation’ and ‘with the intent to deprive another party of the information’s use in litigation." **Also read: NCLAT upholds Google’s Rs 1,337 crore-fine, orders tech company to comply with CCI order in 30 days** He claimed that Google’s internal conversations released in answer to a court order last month “provided additional evidence of highly spotty practises in response to the litigation hold notices.” Donato, for example, cited a freshly produced conversation in which “an employee said he or she was ‘on legal hold,’ but preferred to keep chat history off." Donato’s decision came in a multi-district collusion case involving Epic Games, the attorney generals of 38 states and the District of Columbia, Match Group, and a class of customers. The case is being tried in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs claim that “Google illegally monopolised the Android app distribution market by engaging in exclusionary conduct, which has harmed the different plaintiff groups in various ways,” according to Donato. Google lied in court, destroyed evidence, says Judge According to Donato’s decision, Google gave false information to the court and litigants about its private chat auto-deletion practices. Unless individual document custodians allow the “history-on” option, Google deletes chat communications every 24 hours. In this instance, 383 Google workers are susceptible to the legal hold, with approximately 40 of them named as custodians. The court noted that Google could have set the chat history to “on” as the default for all those workers but decided not to. **Also read: Google to start supporting third-party payment systems for app developers in India, with a twist** “In an October 2020 case management statement, Google falsely assured the Court that it had ’taken appropriate steps to preserve all evidence relevant to the issues reasonably evident in this action,’ without mentioning Chats or its decision not to pause the 24-hour default deletion,” Donato wrote. “Google did not disclose the Chat practises to the plaintiffs until October 2021, many months after the plaintiffs first inquired about them." Another “major concern,” according to Donato, is the “intentionality manifested at every level within Google to hide at the ball with respect to Chat.” Individual users were aware of the litigation risks and appreciated Chat’s ‘off the record’ feature, as previously addressed. Google, as a business, had the capability of preserving all Chat communications systemwide once litigation had begun, but chose not to do so, without any consideration of financial expenses or other considerations that might have helped to explain that decision." Google could be sanctioned in another case as well Google could be sanctioned and also face penalties in a completely different antitrust lawsuit filed by the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. **Also read: In a major setback, Google loses bid to block India’s Android antitrust ruling** Last month, the US requested penalties, claiming that “Google’s daily destruction of written records prejudiced the United States by depriving it of a rich source of candid discussions between Google’s executives, including likely trial witnesses." Following Google’s decision in Northern California federal court yesterday, a US Department of Justice attorney filed a notification of penalties with the DC-based court. Google is also opposing the motion for sanctions in that instance. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.