Google says Microsoft balking at turning over documents in antitrust fight
Google says Microsoft balking at turning over documents in antitrust fight
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google has asked a judge hearing the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against the search and advertising giant to compel Microsoft to turn over documents, saying it has failed to comply with a subpoena, according to a court filing unsealed late Thursday.
Google served a subpoena to Microsoft more than three months ago, seeking documents regarding Microsoft's Bing search engine as well as its Internet Explorer and Edge but has not received them, the filing said.
Google says some of the documents might shed light on whether Microsoft was actually restrained from competing with Google, or whether it simply failed to compete successfully.
"In particular, there are nineteen Microsoft employees who held important positions relating to activities at the core of this case but whose files Microsoft refuses to commit to search at this time," Google said in the filing.
Google's search engine is the market leader by far while Bing's share is in single digits. Google also has a browser, Chrome.
Microsoft, also in a filing late on Thursday, said that Google's additional requests brings the total number of custodians, whose files Microsoft will have to search, to 55.
Google has failed to offer "specific reasons" for why these additional files are necessary, Microsoft added.
Google had said that the 19 of these additional custodians were "highly likely to possess relevant, non-cumulative documents."
According to Google, these executives covered issues at the core of the case, including the development and distribution of Microsoft's various search engines, Microsoft’s search advertising business, and Microsoft's effort to market devices that would give it more search access points beyond the Windows desktop.
The Justice Department sued Google in October, kicking off a spate of federal and state antitrust lawsuits against both Google and Facebook Inc . The federal case against Google and a broader state case have been consolidated for purposes of trial preparation.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Shubham Kalia)
((Diane.Bartz@thomsonreuters.com; 1 202 898 8313;)
路透華盛頓7月29日-週四晚些時候公佈的一份法庭文件顯示，Alphabet旗下的谷歌(Google)要求一名法官審理司法部對這家搜索和廣告巨頭的反壟斷訴訟，迫使微軟交出文件，稱微軟未能遵守傳票。文件稱，谷歌在三個多月前向微軟發出傳票，要求提供有關微軟必應(Bing)搜索引擎以及IE和Edge的文件，但尚未收到。谷歌表示，其中一些文件可能會揭示微軟是否真的受到了限制，無法與谷歌競爭，或者只是未能成功競爭。谷歌在文件中表示：“特別值得一提的是，有19名微軟員工擔任了與本案核心活動相關的重要職位，但微軟目前拒絕承諾搜索他們的文件。”到目前為止，谷歌的搜索引擎是市場的領頭羊，而必應的市場份額只有個位數。谷歌也有瀏覽器Chrome。微軟也在週四晚些時候提交的一份文件中表示，谷歌的額外請求使微軟必須搜索其文件的託管人總數達到55人。微軟補充説，谷歌沒有提供為什麼需要這些額外文件的“具體原因”。谷歌曾表示，這19名額外的託管人“極有可能擁有相關的、非累積的文件。”根據谷歌的説法，這些高管涉及此案的核心問題，包括微軟各種搜索引擎的開發和分銷，微軟的搜索廣告業務，以及微軟努力營銷的設備，這些設備將使微軟在Windows桌面之外獲得更多搜索訪問點。司法部在10月份起訴谷歌，引發了一系列針對谷歌和Facebook Inc.的聯邦和州反壟斷訴訟。為了準備審判，針對谷歌的聯邦案件和更廣泛的州案件已經合併。(Diane Bartz和Shubham Kalia報道)(Diane.Bartz@thomsonreurs.com；1 202 898 8313；)