*

US judge criticized Google for failing to preserve

internal

chats

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Google's 'communicate with care' initiative scrutinized

for

misuse of attorney-client privilege

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Google's evidence handling practices under review in

multiple

ongoing cases

By Mike Scarcella

Aug 6 (Reuters) - A landmark ruling on Monday that

Alphabet's Google illegally monopolizes Web search

also came with a rebuke for the tech giant for obscuring

potential evidence in the case, and a warning to other companies

about safeguarding data.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C.,

lambasted Google for allegedly failing to preserve internal

chats and abusing protections for legal communications, but he

declined to formally sanction the company.

The U.S. Justice Department had asked Mehta to punish Google

for what the government called its "systematic destruction" of

employee messages and "flagrant misuse" of the attorney-client

privilege that shields communications with lawyers.

Mehta said it was not necessary to rule on Google's evidence

handling to decide whether the company violated antitrust law.

"Still, the court is taken aback by the lengths to which

Google goes to avoid creating a paper trail for regulators and

litigants," Mehta wrote. Google "trained its employees, rather

effectively, not to create 'bad' evidence," he said.

Google and the Justice Department declined to comment on Mehta's

decision not to sanction Google over its evidence safeguards.

Google has denied violating antitrust law and said on Monday it

will appeal the court's ruling. It has also denied mishandling

evidence.

Google had a longstanding practice of automatically deleting

employees' chat messages after 24 hours unless the person

clicked a "history on" button to preserve them. It changed the

policy last year to better safeguard chats.

Mehta also criticized the company about its "communicate

with care" initiative, which involved Google employees adding

lawyers to messages and marking them "attorney/client

privileged."

The fight over Google's chat records has extended into other

cases challenging the tech company's business practices.

A federal judge in California last year ruled that Google

"willfully" failed to keep relevant chat evidence in a lawsuit

filed by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games.

Epic prevailed at that trial, which accused Google of overly

controlling the Android app market.

Later this month, a federal judge in Virginia will hear

arguments about evidence destruction in the Justice Department's

lawsuit against Google over its digital advertising practices. A

non-jury trial is scheduled for next month.

Mehta said his decision to not sanction Google was not an

exoneration.

"Any company that puts the onus on its employees to identify

and preserve relevant evidence does so at its own peril," Mehta

wrote. "Google avoided sanctions in this case. It may not be so

lucky in the next one."