DOJ Seeks to Reopen Depositions in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

The U.S. District Court in Washington should allow DOJ 45 days to reopen depositions in an antitrust suit against Google because the platform has finally shared deprivileged documents, the department argued Thursday in a joint filing with the company in docket 1:20-cv-03010 (see 2204130068). DOJ claims Google misused attorney-client privilege to hide business documents relevant to the antitrust lawsuit (see 2203210054 and 2204070065). Google has since produced some 37,000 “deprivileged” documents. New depositions with employees may be in order “due to Google’s late productions of deprivileged documents,” DOJ said. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday announced oral argument for Sept. 19 in a separate antitrust lawsuit against Facebook in docket 21-7078. Nearly 50 state attorneys general sued Facebook for allegedly abusing its market dominance, forcing smaller rivals out of business and reducing competition.