Apple, GroupM, others ask for tough protection for data in Google
lawsuit
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[November 21, 2020] WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Apple Inc, advertising giant GroupM and others asked the
judge hearing the Justice Department's lawsuit against Alphabet's Google
on Friday to allow them to designate certain data used by the government
as "highly confidential," to ensure that no-one from Google could see
it.
The Justice Department, which sued the search and advertising giant in
October, put at the core of its antitrust case the billions of dollars
that Google paid to be the default search engine on Apple's iPhones, and
Apple noted in its filing that sensitive data was used to write the
complaint.
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The government is accusing Google of illegally using its market muscle
to hobble rivals in a lawsuit that is the biggest challenge to the power
and influence of Big Tech in decades.
Google had offered to ensure that any confidential information would be
made available solely to two in-house attorneys at the offices of
Google's outside counsel or in another secure manner, adding that it
would promptly report any disclosure.
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The logo of Google is seen in Davos, Switzerland Januar 20, 2020.
Picture taken January 20, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
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Like Apple, companies including AT&T, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc which
assisted the government asked Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia to create a tier of data deemed "highly confidential"
and to prohibit any Google employee from having access to it. GroupM further
asked that the information be "disclosed only on an 'outside attorneys' eyes
only' basis."
Apple said that it had already given the government data on its relationship
with Google, and expected to be asked for more, including potentially the terms
of deals that Apple struck with other search engines and Apple's internal
deliberations around negotiating the deals.
Microsoft, Amazon and others said in a joint filing that if Google had access to
some sensitive documents that it would gain leverage with the companies in any
future negotiations.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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