Google Accused of Deleting Evidence in Antitrust Cases.

A federal judge has ruled that Google intentionally tried to "hide the ball" in a high-profile antitrust case by automatically deleting employee chat messages that could have been used as evidence in the suit. The ruling condemns Google's document preservation practices and their impact on litigation, which could have a broader impact as the company defends a range of suits on multiple fronts. Google will not face immediate sanctions for its missteps apart from having to cover the legal fees that plaintiffs incurred in bringing the sanctions motion.