The search and advertising giant had asked the judge to
compel Microsoft to turn over documents, citing its failure to comply with a
subpoena, according to a court filing unsealed late Thursday.
"In terms of does this request meet the general
definition of relevancy? The answer is yes," said Judge Amit Mehta of the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia at a hearing on Friday. 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 Google's
additional requests brings the total number of custodians, whose files
Microsoft will have to search, to 55.
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. -Reuters
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