WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has charged Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:) of violating antitrust laws in its search industry. It asked a judge for a finding that Alphabet abused an attorney client privilege designation to prevent the release of documents.

The Justice Department requested that Google be sanctioned by court for its creation of a program called “Communicate with Care”. This allows workers to request advice and include the services of an attorney when writing sensitive business issues.

“Often, knowing the game, the in-house counsel included in these Communicate-with-Care emails does not respond at all,” the department said, adding that many of the emails had to do with revenue share agreements that Google had struck with other companies.

Google spokesperson claimed that more than 4,000,000 documents had been provided to the government by the company. According to the spokesperson, “Our teams have worked tirelessly over years to resolve inquiries and lawsuits. Any suggestions that the opposite is wrong are completely false.”

If the in-house counsel didn’t respond, the Justice Department requested the documents be produced. U.S. district judge Amit Mehta was asked to conduct a hearing on the matter.

Google was sued by the Justice Department in 2020. The trial is expected to take place in September 2023.