It sounds like there were disagreements between Google's lawyers and the DOJ lawyers on the scope of the hold and what constitutes "reasonable."
This is false. They are seeking a finding that Google destroyed evidence, and a hearing to assess sanctions, and an order for Google to make additional evidence available before the hearing. [0]
While fines might be part of the sanctions, a very common sanction for destruction of evidence is adverse inference jury instructions in the litigation the evidence was relevant to.
[0] actual motion: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223...
An oft-repeated argument, but usually not backed by any evidence or math.
> “Let’s not talk about markets and market share via email.”
> “[W]e should chat live so you can get the history; best to not put in email.”
> “Since it’s a sensitive topic, I prefer to discuss offline or over hangout.”
This is of course not, in fact, some cute way around legal custodial requirements, no matter what the people who passed leetcode preached in trainings.
From the article: "Federal rules for litigation required Google to suspend deleting chats in mid-2019, when Google would have anticipated the antitrust lawsuit, the government said. But Google continued using “off the record chats” even after the lawsuit was filed, the DOJ’s attorneys wrote."