Calhoun v. Google LLC (N.D. Cal. 2022)
Key Insight: This matter relates to the court’s order to compel and order to show cause as to why Google should not be sanctioned for interfering with the production of third-party Ernst & Young (E&Y) documents ordered by the court. Plaintiff subpoenaed E&Y for documents relating to the valuation of certain user information. Google moved for a protective order and the court granted in part and denied in part the motion, narrowly tailoring the allowed requests. E&Y then identified 6,322 responsive documents and Google reviewed and deselected 6,232 documents on the basis of relevance, resulting in E&Y’s production of 90 documents. Google maintains it was justified in working with E&Y to cull irrelevant documents from the final production. The court noted: “Googles proffered ‘justification,’ primarily that the documents reflect highly confidential financial information not relevant to the claims in suit, was heard and rejected by this Court twice.” The court ordered Google to pay plaintiff’s fees and costs for having to bring the motion to compel.
Nature of Case: Data Privacy Class Action
Electronic Data Involved: Financial documents