States Press for ‘Significant Sanctions’ vs. Google in App Store Case

Google’s excuses for its “ongoing destruction” of daily chats as evidence in Utah’s multistate antitrust lawsuit against Google’s app store (see 2204010037) don't “remotely pass muster,” said the states’ reply Thursday (docket 3:21-cv-05227) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco in support of their motion for “significant sanctions” against the company. Google’s argument that its efforts were “reasonable” is “irreconcilable with the systematic and avoidable destruction” of relevant chats, plus “its continued failure to explain why it did not suspend automatic deletion, including after being expressly put on notice,” they said. Google’s argument that it lacked the “requisite intent” ignores that Google still, to this day, continues the wholesale destruction of chats, that it withheld information about the destruction of chats for months, and that its custodians “intentionally divert sensitive conversations” to chat to avoid discovery, they said.