MDL Plaintiffs Seek to Compel Google to Produce 800,000 DOJ Documents in Ad Tech Case

The plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation challenging Google’s alleged anticompetitive hold on the digital ad tech market want to compel Google to produce 800,000 documents it produced for DOJ’s digital ad tech investigation but has withheld from the MDL plaintiffs, they wrote U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel for Southern New York in a letter Friday (docket 1:21-md-03010). Google hasn’t explained why it would take four to six weeks to produce documents it has already produced to other parties in related litigation, said the letter. “Google’s continued withholding of the DOJ documents is unjustified and is delaying efficient progress” in the MDL, it said. Producing the 800,000 documents involves “only minimal burden for Google,” it said. “The documents have already been reviewed by Google and prepared for production. Google can just push a button.” Producing the documents “would significantly aid the progress of document discovery” in the MDL, it said.