The comparison between Google and Big Tobacco isn’t perfect. Internet search is not the same as smoking. Even Google’s loudest antitrust critics wouldn’t draw a direct parallel between hiding critical public health information about tobacco and boxing out search rivals.

Yet the corporations’ legal tactics do look similar, at least according to the DOJ filing. “It’s ethics 101: You can’t render material privileged simply by routing it to a lawyer,” said Nora Engstrom, a professor at Stanford Law School and expert on legal ethics. “The government brief paints an ugly picture of the cynical perversion of the attorney-client privilege.” It’s worth noting that U.S. officials eventually did force tobacco companies to cough up thousands of documents that had been concealed as privileged.