Google faces legal consequences for deleting chat logs and hiding evidence in antitrust cases.

A federal judge accused Google of not retaining employee chat messages for potential legal evidence and ruled that sanctions were warranted. The judge alleged that Google lost chat message evidence with the intent to prevent its use in litigation. The order came from U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge James Donato in the antitrust case of Epic Games, Inc. v. Google LLC et al. The judge ordered the plaintiffs to create a statement detailing proposed attorneys’ fees and costs racked up related to a "Rule 37 motion" by an April 21 deadline.