U.S. judge in Google case not convinced company’s conduct will get sanction
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. federal decide listening to the federal government’s antitrust case in opposition to Alphabet’s Google stated on Friday he was not satisfied that he had the authority to sanction the corporate for overzealous use of attorney-client privilege if it occurred earlier than the Justice Division’s lawsuit was filed.
The division had requested Choose Amit Mehta in a courtroom submitting to sanction Google, saying the corporate’s “Talk with Care” program, which requested staff so as to add a lawyer to many emails, was typically a “sport” to defend communications that didn’t genuinely fall beneath attorney-client privilege. Google responded that it did nothing improper.
Mehta, of the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia, stated that there have been an “eye-popping” 140,000 paperwork initially slated as falling beneath attorney-client privilege however that 98,000 or these had been rapidly given to the federal government. However he additionally stated that he was “unsure a federal courtroom has the authority” to sanction that apply because it occurred earlier than the federal government filed its lawsuit.
John Schmidtlein, Google’s legal professional within the case, stated that 21,000 of the emails had been nonetheless at challenge.
Kenneth Dintzer, the Justice Division’s lawyer, requested that Google be sanctioned for the apply and be required to show over the 21,000 emails. He argued that the apply value the federal government priceless time in placing collectively its case.
The Justice Division filed the lawsuit in opposition to Google in 2020, accusing it of violating antitrust legislation in its dealing with of its search enterprise. Trial was set for September 2023.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; enhancing by Bernard Orr)
