Judge accuses Google of being “conspicuously short” when it comes to keeping chat messages from employees

David Sacks, COO of PayPal’s founding, talks about the potential of ChatGPT and how far it could spread in The Claman Countdown.

A federal judge accused Google of “conspicuously missing” employee chat messages for potential legal evidence, ruling that sanctions were “justified.”

The judge wrote in a filing on Tuesday that the court “concludes that Google has failed to take reasonable steps to retain electronically stored information that should be retained pending or administering litigation.”

He said evidence of Google employees’ chat messages was lost “with intent to prevent its use in litigation” and “with intent to prevent another party from using the information in litigation,” according to the court document.

FLORIDA AG EYES MAKES GOOGLE IDENTIFICATION TO CONSUMERS BEFORE DOWNLOADING THIRD-PARTY APPS

A sign on a Google building at its campus in Mountain View, California, September 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File/AP Newsroom)

The order came from the U.S. District Court for Judge for the Northern District of California James Donato in Epic Games, Inc.’s multiple district litigation against Google LLC et al., an antitrust case relating to the Google Play Store.

The judge claimed that Google “gave each employee carte blanche to make their own call as to what might be relevant in this complex antitrust case and whether any chat communication should be retained.” The tech giant, he suggested, could have done it by saving all chats instead of automatically deleting some after a certain time frame.

“Our teams have worked diligently for years to respond to discovery requests from Epic and State AG, and we’ve created over 3 million documents, including thousands of chats,” a Google spokesperson told FOX Business. “We will continue to show the court how choice, security and openness are built into Android and Google Play.”

Google logo (Rolf Vennenbernd/Picture Alliance via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Donato stated in its order that a decision in the antitrust case would not be made “on the basis of lost chat communications”. Further procedures are needed for the court to identify an “appropriate non-monetary sanction,” he added.

GOOGLE OPENS ACCESS TO CHATGPT RIVAL BARD

The judge directed plaintiffs to prepare a statement by April 21 detailing proposed attorneys’ fees and costs in connection with a “Rule 37 request.” He said it was “entirely appropriate” for the tech giant to take on such charges as a fine.

In a separate Justice Department case, Google was recently accused of improperly storing some chat communications, the tech giant claims, according to Portal.

A woman walks past a Google logo at the Arena Berlin in Berlin, Germany, 09 June 2022. (Portal/Annegret Hilse / Portal photos)

FOX Business also reached out to Epic Games for comment, but received no response at the time of publication.

Google Play has been around for years and as of June 2021 had over 2 million apps and games on it.

GOOGLE SAYS FEWER EMPLOYEES WILL GET PROMOTIONS TO EXECUTIVE POSITIONS