Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify Tuesday in Epic’s lawsuit against Google. Epic plans to call Pichai as a witness while he presents his case alleging that Google Play is an illegal monopoly.
In court documents, Google requested to use a podium in the courtroom on Tuesday, suggesting that Pichai could appear to testify; Last month, when he testified in the United States against Google, Pichai stood behind a podium instead of sitting due to apparent back problems. (Judge James Donato granted the podium request Thursday afternoon.)
Pichai’s appearance isn’t a total surprise, as the CEO appeared as one of 53 witnesses Epic said it may or may not call before the trial begins. But what he says could be a big problem, given his decision-making role as the company’s CEO, and also because employees as high up the network as Pichai himself were found to be scheduling conversations to be automatically deleted. . Epic has repeatedly accused Google of systematically destroying evidence to keep it out of court, and Judge James Donato is allowing Epic to try to prove that to the jury at trial.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Update November 9 at 7:51 pm ET: Judge Donato granted the request for the podium.
