A US court has sanctioned Google for delaying compliance with a ruling issued in a data privacy class action last year.
The ruling is related to a high-profile case surrounding consumer claims that Google’s parent company Alphabet unlawfully tracked its users while they were using the Chrome browser in incognito or private mode.
This is the second time in recent days that the search engine giant has suffered a legal setback. Google has been struggling to defend itself against increased regulatory scrutiny bringing forth the company’s questionable practices, including complaints of unlawful tracking and monopolising over the digital advertising market.
In a separate ruling made last week, a California court concluded that Google had failed to preserve chat messages between employees in connection with an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games. Though the court did not lay out immediate sanctions for Google in the ruling, it said it would later determine an amount to cover legal fees of the complainant’s lawyers. Google decided to contest the claims.
As for the privacy class action, Google defended itself by saying users of the Chrome browsers had consented to data collection by the company. “Countless documents and discovery” were provided by Google in the case, a company spokesperson said. This is not the first time Google has been sanctioned in the same case by the same judge. The previous sanctions order was issued in May 2022, which the company has apparently failed to adhere to.
The latest order restricts Google from bringing certain employee witnesses to the case and directs the company to pay a $79,000 fine.
Google has been going through challenging times in terms of regulation across different global markets. Last week, Spain’s competition watchdog CNMC opened an inquiry into Google for possible anti-competitive licensing practices affecting publishers and news agencies. The reported practices included distorting free competition and enforcing unfair conditions on publishers and news agencies, according to the regulator.
In January, Google was sued by the US Justice Department and eight states for monopolising over the digital advertising market. The complaint accused Google of engaging in anti-competitive and exclusionary practices over the past 15 years to neutralise or eliminate ad tech competitors. In December, a US appeals court revived a case against Google for allegedly violating children’s privacy through its services.
In October, Google was taken to court by Texas on allegations of violating the state’s biometric laws without obtaining proper prior consent.
Earlier, the search engine giant was fined $161 million and $113 million in two separate antitrust probes conducted by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
