Alphabet Inc., Harvests Case After Suspect In US And Faces Record Fines In European Union

JAKARTA - The US Department of Justice has accused Google's parent company Alphabet Inc of violating antitrust laws in its search business. They have asked a judge to find that the company abused the attorney-client privilege appointment to avoid submitting documents.

In a court lawsuit, the Justice Department demanded that Google be penalized for creating the "Communicate Carefully" program. This program trains workers to include lawyers and requests for advice when writing about sensitive business issues.

"Often, knowing the game, the internal advisor included in these Communicate-with-Care emails doesn't respond at all", the department said. They also added that many of the emails were related to revenue-sharing agreements that Google had reached with other companies.

A Google spokesperson said that the company had provided more than 4 million documents to the government. "Our team has worked earnestly over the years to respond to inquiries and litigation, and any advice to the contrary is simply wrong", the spokesperson said as quoted by Reuters.

The Justice Department had asked for the documents to be shown if internal counsel did not reply. They also asked US District Judge Amit Mehta to convene a hearing to discuss the matter.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Google in 2020, with a trial expected to take place in September 2023.

Meanwhile, Europe's second-highest court will decide on September 14 in a case that is also Alphabet's with a record-high 4.34 billion euro (IDR 68.8 trillion) antitrust fine from the European Union imposed on Google. They are accused of using the Android mobile operating system to blackmail rivals.

The decision from the Luxembourg-based European Union General Court comes 10 months after the world's most popular internet search engine lost its battle in the same court against a 2.42 billion euros ($2 billion) penalty in another case. Google has also appealed the ruling.

A spokesman for the Court of the European Union has also confirmed the date.

During a five-day court hearing last year, Google called the sentence from the European Commission a shocking and inappropriate fine.

The company has raised more than 8 billion euros in antitrust fines in the European Union in the last decade. EU antitrust enforcers are now investigating Google over its data use and online advertising agreements with Facebook.