Google blasted as ‘negligent’ over evidence destruction as landmark DOJ antitrust case wraps up

A federal judge blasted Google for its “negligent” policy that resulted in the deletion of employee chat records as closing arguments wrapped up Friday in a landmark antitrust case that could result in unprecedented changes to the tech giant’s core business.

Justice Department attorneys asked Judge Amit Mehta to sanction Google for failing to preserve evidence despite a court order and to rule that its conduct was intended to conceal anticompetitive behavior. Google has denied wrongdoing.

Mehta said it was “negligent” of Google to implement the policy, which automatically destroyed employee messages after 24 hours.

“Google’s document retention policy leaves a lot to be desired,” Mehta said. “It’s shocking to me that a company would leave it to its employees to decide when to preserve documents.”

Mehta did not indicate whether he would sanction Google over the policy. An attorney for the tech giant said the auto-erase policy was explicitly disclosed to plaintiffs years earlier, undercutting the feds’ claims that it showed intent to destroy evidence.

Google was already sanctioned over the same evidence destruction claims in a separate federal case filed by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games. Late last year, US District Judge James Donato said Google’s “willful and intentional suppression of relevant evidence in this case is deeply troubling.”