What you need to know
- Google asked a judge from the U.S. Justice Department's ongoing antitrust case to make Microsoft share documents related to the case.
- Microsoft claims that Google's request is unreasonable and burdensome.
- Google served a subpoena to Microsoft about documents regarding Bing, Internet Explorer, and Edge three months ago.
Microsoft is a key player in the U.S. Justice Department's ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet's Google. According to a court filing that was unsealed on Thursday, July 30, 2021, Google asked a judge hearing the case to make Microsoft share documents related to Microsoft's Bing, Internet Explorer, and Edge browser.
The filing claims that Microsoft refuses to search the files of 19 executives. Google says that the files in question are relevant to its defense (via Bloomberg). Microsoft was served a subpoena by Google over three months ago (via Reuters)
"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," says Google in the filing.
Microsoft issued a separate filing that calls Google's request burdensome and unreasonable. The filing from Microsoft explains that the company is willing to gather documents from 27 people. Google called for documents related to 28 additional individuals, bringing the total to 55.
According to Microsoft, Google hasn't provided "specific reasons" why the files are relevant to the case.
Google claims that the executives in question worked in several areas that are related to Microsoft's search engine and search advertising businesses.
Microsoft and Google had a truce for several years regarding regulatory complaints and lawsuits. That truce was not renewed, which is evident by recent activities from both companies.
