Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
While Epic Games’ long legal back and forth with Apple took up much of the spotlight over the past couple of years, the Fortnite creator has also been in a longstanding legal battle with Google over antitrust allegations stemming from the decision to boot Fortnite from the Google Play Store. Epic Games alleged that Google deleted messages and destroyed internal documents pertaining to the ongoing case, and a judge has now ruled that to be the case.
Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Google leadership had destroyed messages and internal documents as it battles Epic Games in court over antitrust allegations. The judge is now trying to determine what punishment Google should face. They stated that “the Court would like to see the state of play of the evidence at the end of fact discovery. At that time, plaintiffs will be better positioned to tell the Court what might have been lost in the Chat communications.”
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been very vocal about his company’s ongoing battle with Google, and tweeted his thoughts after the judge’s ruling in regard to Google deleting messages.
The Department of Justice made similar allegations against Google earlier this year, stating that the company “systemically destroyed” internal chat messages relevant to litigation. We await details on what sanctions will be dropped on Google as a result of its destruction of evidence. We’ll also be watching closely for an eventual conclusion to the longstanding antitrust lawsuit between Epic Games and Google.