Google slapped with $971,000 sanction for litigation misconduct in privacy suit

Google had failed to make timely disclosure of some evidence

A U.S. court on Friday ruled Alphabet Inc's Google to pay more than $971,000 as legal fees and costs, penalizing them for litigation misconduct in a privacy lawsuit in California federal court. The plaintiffs' lawyers sought more than $1 million in fees and costs after U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen in San Jose, California. The federal court found that Google had failed to make timely disclosure of some evidence. The $5 billion lawsuit filed in 2020 argues that Google has unlawfully tracked its users' data while they were using the company's browsers in private, or "incognito," mode.

Google has denied these charges. The sanctions arose from Google's "failure to identify data sources, witnesses, and additional documents relevant to this litigation," van Keulen wrote in a previous order. The judge brought down the plaintiffs' award by about $75,000 after deducting amounts from lawyers who billed under 10 hours. Billing records shown in the case last month reflected Boies Schiller's founder and prominent litigator, David Boies, billing $1,950 hourly. Boies sought compensation for 49 hours, or about $96,000.