Google Under DOJ Scanner For Allegedly Destroying Antitrust Evidence: Report - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

The Justice Department urged a federal judge Thursday to sanction Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google for its past practice of setting employee chats to auto-delete, despite promising to preserve records required for litigation.
The Justice Department said Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google destroyed written records pivotal to an antitrust lawsuit on preserving its internet search dominance, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google employees routinely discussed “substantive and sensitive business” using an instant-messaging product that deleted chats after 24 hours, the Justice Department said.
Also Read: US DOJ Rekindled Antitrust Investigation In Google Maps: Report
Google has denied the DOJ’s allegations.
The evidence fight relates to the DOJ’s 2020 lawsuit on Google for allegedly maintaining an unlawful web of exclusionary and interlocking business agreements that shut out rivals.
Federal rules for litigation required Google to suspend deleting chats in mid-2019. But Google continued using “off the record chats” despite the lawsuit, the DOJ’s attorneys wrote.
The government said the company only committed to permanently preserving its employees’ chat messages this week after DOJ officials informed Google they would file their motion for sanctions.
Justice Department attorneys said the deleted chats may have contained especially relevant information and revealed candid discussions between executives.
Price Action: GOOG shares traded lower by 1.26% at $89.92 in the premarket on the last check Friday.

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