A federal court judge has lambasted Google for deceptive tactics in a high-stakes court case, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta also attacking the technology behemoth for “egregious behavior.”
The judge’s excoriation came in a multi-lawsuit legal action involving dozens of states, including California, accusing the Mountain View-based digital advertising giant of monopolizing the distribution of apps that use Google’s Android operating system.
Judge James Donato found Google broke federal court rules, and potentially weakened the antitrust case against the company, by auto-deleting internal employee messages the firm was obligated to hand over to the states and other plaintiffs as evidence.
“Google has tried to downplay the problem and displayed