Google is misusing attorney-client privilege to hide business documents relevant to DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, DOJ argued Monday in a filing before the U.S. District Court in Washington in docket 1:20-cv-03010. DOJ asked the court to sanction Google for its “extensive and intentional efforts.” Google “explicitly and repeatedly instructed" employees to "shield important business communications from discovery by using false requests for legal advice,” the department claimed. Employees routinely added “in-house counsel to business communications” and other privilege labels when no legal advice was actually needed, sought or received, DOJ said. The court should order full production of withheld and redacted emails where “in-house counsel was included in a communication between non-attorneys and did not respond,” DOJ said. Or the court could rule the emails aren’t privileged, DOJ said.
“Evolving intelligence” shows Russia is exploring potential cyberattacks against the U.S., President Joe Biden said Monday. He urged private sector entities to implement best practices to strengthen cyber defense, noting most U.S. critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector. Best practices include multifactor authentication, patches against the newest and known vulnerabilities, data backup, emergency drills, encrypted data and employee education, the White House said.
The FTC and DOJ will host a series of listening sessions about the effects of mergers and acquisitions through May 12, the FTC announced Thursday. The agencies will host a session on media and entertainment April 27 and another on technology May 12. The first two sessions will be on agriculture and healthcare. FTC Chair Lina Khan and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter will give opening remarks and attend each event with staff. The sessions tie into the agencies’ review of merger guidelines (see 2203100069).
Sony joined as a steering committee member of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, said the coalition Wednesday. C2PA, as the coalition calls itself, works to “address the prevalence of mis/disinformation and to scale transparency and trust in online content,” it said. Adobe, Arm, BBC, Intel, Microsoft, Truepic and Twitter are its founding members.
U.S. consumers spent $1.7 trillion online during two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020-February 2022), $609 billion more than in the two preceding years combined, reported Adobe Tuesday. Demand remained strong in 2021 with $885 billion in online spend, up 8.9% year over year, it said: “As the digital economy shifts to more personalized customer experiences, Adobe expects the annual online spend in the U.S. to surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2022.” Of the $1.7 trillion spent by consumers, $32 billion was due to higher prices, said Adobe. Online inflation, first observed in June 2020, has persisted for 21 consecutive months, it said. “The impact was most notable in 2021, where $22 billion of e-commerce growth was driven by higher prices compared to just $4.7 billion in 2020.” In the first two months of 2022, $3.8 billion in e-commerce growth was driven by higher prices, said Adobe. But inflation didn't deter demand, it said. Online spending in January and February topped $138 billion, up 13.8% from the first two months of 2021, it said: “Adobe expects consumers could pay as much as $27 billion more online for the same amount of goods due to inflation.”
States can’t bring antitrust claims against Facebook’s years-old acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook argued Monday in a lawsuit from 48 state attorneys general (see 2201140061). The company cited a district court ruling that federal antitrust law’s four-year statute of limitations provides a “generous” guideline for laches in its filing against lead plaintiff New York before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in docket 21-7078. The company argued Instagram and WhatsApp wouldn’t have achieved their growth without Facebook’s promotion and investment. “Subjecting Facebook to an equitable remedy now for these long-ago applications of the policies would be presumptively prejudicial,” it argued, seeking affirmation of the district court decision.
E-commerce platform CafePress must pay $500,000 to small businesses and “bolster” its data security practices after it allegedly failed to “secure consumers’ sensitive personal data and covered up a major breach” in 2019, the FTC said Tuesday. The commission voted 4-0 to approve the agency’s complaint. It alleged CafePress, an online customized merchandise platform, “failed to implement reasonable security measures to protect sensitive information stored on its network, including plain text Social Security numbers, inadequately encrypted passwords, and answers to password reset questions.” The complaint was filed against former owner Residual Pumpkin Entity and PlanetArt, which bought the company in 2020. Future violations against the FTC’s order carry civil penalties of up to $46,517 each. The company didn’t comment.
The tech industry’s lawsuit against a Texas social media law is scheduled for oral argument the week of May 9, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Sunday in docket 21-51178 (see 2203030063).
Two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “we don't know how this evolves going forward, and it's really too early to tell what the overall impact of this on our business will be,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Thursday. “In this moment that reminds us why public conversation is important in the world,” said Agrawal: “It gives us this opportunity to showcase the value of Twitter to all of these people, but it also has us feel this immense responsibility.” Twitter has been “doing work proactively to be prepared for this moment” for years, he said. In 2019, it banned all ads from “state-affiliated media organizations,” and two years ago it started “labeling and de-amplifying all state-affiliated media entities,” he said: “We've been very, very transparent about any attempt that we've seen from state actors to manipulate the conversation on Twitter.” Former Chief Technology Officer Agrawal took over as Twitter CEO in November after Jack Dorsey abruptly left the company (see 2111290038).
The FTC and DOJ’s Antitrust Division will host an enforcers' summit April 4, the commission announced Thursday. FTC Chair Lina Khan, DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter and senior staff will discuss “modernizing merger guidelines and interagency collaboration,” the FTC said. The hybrid event will include in-person and virtual participation from international enforcers and state attorneys general. The agencies announced the joint merger guidelines review in January (see 2201180073).