In response to the US Justice Department’s motion for sanctions in federal court, Google clarified that they never intended to destroy evidence relevant to the antitrust lawsuit pertaining to their search business.
On Friday Google said that the company made “reasonable” efforts to preserve communication records.
Last month the DOJ alleged Google failed to preserve certain internal corporate “chat” communications. The DOJ said Google told US investigators in 2019 that the company had put a hold on allowing auto-deletion of those instant messaging records.
Read more: DOJ Opposes Google’s Attempt To Move Ad Antitrust Case To New York
In its latest bid for sanctions, the DOJ alleged: “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.”
Google was already busy fighting off a federal suit claiming it has built a monopoly in search and search advertising markets, got slapped with another major antitrust suit earlier this year. That lawsuit, filed by the DOJ and eight state attorneys general, claims Google maintains an illegal monopoly in the digital ad markets. If the DOJ gets its way, Google will be forced to break up its ad business.
