Texas attorney general says that search giant is wrongly classifying
email conversations between non-lawyers as being covered by
lawyer-client privilege, as investigation deepens
Houston, Texas. Photograph: Don Mcphee for the Guardian
The Texas attorney general is accusing Google of improperly withholding proof to stymie an investigation into whether or not the corporate has been abusing its dominance of internet search.
The allegations surfaced in a very court filing earlier in the week as a part of Texas' probe into Google's business practices, currently in its second year.
Texas is one among a minimum of six US states examining whether or not Google manipulates its search engine's influential results to stifle competition and drive up on-line advertising costs.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Europe's antitrust regulators are conducting their own investigations into constant problems, with an early July deadline for responses in Europe.
As regulators and alternative government authorities pursue their inquiries, Google is being asked to show over reams of internal emails and alternative records that might illuminate the company's strategy and supply insights into the mindset of its high executives.
However Google has refused handy over over fourteen,500 documents coated in formal demands issued by Texas attorney general Greg Abbott in July 2010 and will 2011.
Abbott filed a petition on Monday in a very Texas state court seeking an order that will need the corporate to surrender a lot of of the requested material.
News of the filing broke within the Wall Street Journal some hours before Google's annual shareholders' meeting on Thursday at its headquarters in Mountain read, California.
The uncertainty posed by Google's legal battles with government regulators and authorities round the world is one among the explanations the company's stock has been lagging the remainder of the market since co-founder Larry Page became chief government over fourteen months ago.
Page himself wasn't gift at the annual meeting as a result of he has lost his voice, government chairman Eric Schmidt explained at the event.
The affliction means that Page will ought to miss Google's I/O event for developers next week, at that the corporate is anticipated to unveil its own branded pill to compete with Apple's iPad and Microsoft's Surface, announced earlier in the week.
The meeting saw shareholders vote in favour of a replacement stock structure which is able to split the stock however won't offer voting rights to newly created shares – an outcome that had continuously been bound as a result of Page, and his co-founder Sergey Brin, management the bulk of the voting stock.
Google shares fell $12.30 (£7.87) on Thursday to shut at $565.21. The stock has declined by four-dimensional throughout Page's reign, whereas each the technology-driven Nasdaq composite index and also the Dow Jones industrial average have gained two hundredth.
This isn't the primary time a government agency has criticised Google for perceived stonewalling.
In April, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Google $25,000 when concluding the corporate deliberated impeded an investigation into a Google project that scooped up emails, passwords and alternative personal info transmitted over unsecured wireless networks in homes located round the world.
In its report, the FCC noted that despite being a world leader in search, Google had said that providing the emails that the FCC wished to hold out its investigation would be too time-consuming, and solely offered 5 emails in its 1st response to the grievance.
Google denied it did something wrong, though it paid the fine.
In a statement on Thursday, Google solid itself as a decent company citizen – a picture that it seeks to cultivate as a part of its "Don't Be Evil" motto.
"We have shared many thousands of documents with the Texas attorney general, and that we are happy to answer any queries that regulators have regarding our business," Google said.
The Texas dispute hinges on whether or not the documents in question are legally protected communications between Google's lawyers and also the company's staff.
Abbott contends Google is making an attempt to hide documents that do not fall below the defend referred to as attorney-client privilege, that covers conversations between a lawyer and a consumer.
The Texas attorney general reached that conclusion when reviewing Google's justification for withholding the requested documents.
In several instances, Google is asserting the attorney-client privilege on communications between non-lawyers, in line with Abbott's petition. The disputed records mirror however do not contain recommendation directly from a lawyer, in line with the petition.
Abbott says Google is withholding alternative records that do not seem to own been ready by lawyers.
To prove his purpose, Abbott desires a Travis County court decide in Texas to review a sampling of the documents that Google is making an attempt to safeguard to see if they fall below attorney-client privilege.
The review would be drained the privacy of the judge's chambers, a method referred to as "in camera".
"The attorney general's workplace believes an in camera review of those examples can seemingly demonstrate that Google has considerably overreached in its effort to stop disclosure of documents," lawyers on Abbott's employees wrote within the petition.
Google, meanwhile, is asking Abbott's investigators to come or delete twelve documents that the corporate had previously turned over, in line with the petition.
Abbott desires a decide to appear over those records to see if they fall below attorney-client privilege.
