Security News > 2023 > March > Google again accused of willfully destroying evidence in Android antitrust battle

Google Chat histories handed over by the web giant in ongoing Android antitrust litigation reveal the biz has been systematically destroying evidence, according to those suing the big G. "Google employees regularly and intentionally diverted to 'history off' Chats [sic] conversations about Google's anticompetitive Revenue Share Agreements, Mobile Application Distribution Agreements, Google Play Billing payment policies and pricing, and a variety of other critical issues - specifically to ensure that those Chats would be destroyed," the plaintiffs - a mix of state government, corporate, and individuals - claim in a legal brief [PDF] filed on Monday.

The brief touches on many more of the conversations captured in the exhibits, and notes that most interactions of this sort leave no record at all because Google has coached employees to "'communicat[e] with care' because Google 'often ha[s] to produce employee communications as evidence.

The most salient issue here, said Musell, is whether Google was under a litigation hold - required to retain evidence - at the time employees were preventing evidence from being stored.

"Consequently, on the record as a whole, the court concludes that Google did not take reasonable steps to preserve electronically stored information that should have been preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation," the judge wrote, noting that the record shows the deleted Chat evidence cannot be recovered through additional discovery.

"The court concludes 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 the litigation.'".

The judge did however direct Google to pay for the costs incurred by the plaintiffs in challenging Google's evidence handling.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/03/28/google_destroying_evidence_claim/