
A federal court in California ruled in favor of sanctions against Google last week for failing to preserve records. Google’s document retention policy required individual employees to identify internal chat conversations responsive to a litigation hold. The court found this policy to be in violation of Google’s duty to preserve electronically-stored information under the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e). The consolidated case arose out of antitrust litigation regarding Google’s “Play Store” Application on Android cell-phones. In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, 21-MD-02981, NDCa.