Google Wins Fight for Discovery in South Carolina Antitrust Suit

Alphabet Inc.’s Google persuaded the Fourth Circuit Wednesday that a South Carolina agency must comply with Google’s subpoena for materials relating to the tech company’s defense in an antitrust case it’s fighting.

The South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism can’t invoke sovereign immunity to stave off Google’s discovery request because South Carolina’s attorney general waived the agency’s immunity by suing Google in federal court, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled.

“By joining the lawsuit against Google, the State voluntarily invoked the jurisdiction of a federal court, thereby effecting a waiver of its …