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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify on Tuesday in Epic’s lawsuit against Google. Epic plans to call Pichai as a witness as it makes its case alleging that Google Play is an unlawful monopoly.
In court documents, Google requested to use a podium in the courtroom on Tuesday, which suggests that Pichai may indeed appear to testify; last month, when he testified in US v. Google, Pichai stood behind a podium instead of sitting because of apparent back issues. (Judge James Donato granted the request for the podium Thursday evening.)
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 kicked off. But what he says might be a big deal given his decision-making role as chief executive at the company — and also because employees as high up the chain as Pichai himself were found setting conversations to auto-delete. Epic has repeatedly accused Google of systematically destroying evidence to keep it out of court, and Judge Donato is letting Epic attempt to prove that to the jury at trial.
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Google didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
We’ll be reporting live from the courtroom on Tuesday, as we have been all week.
Update November 9th, 7:51PM ET: Judge Donato granted the request for the podium.
