US says Google routinely destroyed evidence and lied about use of auto-delete

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The US government asked a federal court to sanction Google for allegedly using an auto-delete function on chats to destroy evidence needed in an antitrust lawsuit while falsely telling the government that it suspended its auto-deletion practices.

The US motion to sanction Google seeks a ruling that Google violated the rule against spoliation of evidence and “an evidentiary hearing to assess the appropriate sanctions to remedy Google’s spoliation.” The US also sought an order forcing “Google to provide further information about custodians’ history-off chat practices, through written declarations and oral testimony, in advance of the requested hearing.” The motion was filed under seal on February 10 and unsealed yesterday.

“Google consciously failed to preserve relevant evidence. The daily destruction of relevant evidence was inevitable when Google set a company-wide default to delete history-off chat messages every 24 hours, and then elected to maintain that auto-delete setting for custodians subject to a litigation hold,” US Department of Justice antitrust lawyers wrote in a memorandum supporting the motion.