“Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Corp and four other technology companies were ordered by a judge to face an antitrust lawsuit claiming they illegally conspired not to poach each other’s employees,” Jonathan Stempel reports for Reuters.
“District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected the companies’ bid to dismiss claims brought under the federal Sherman antitrust law and California’s own antitrust law, the Cartwright Act,” Stempel reports. “In a decision on Wednesday night, Koh said the existence of ‘Do Not Cold Call’ agreements among various defendants ‘supports the plausible inference that the agreements were negotiated, reached, and policed at the highest levels’ of the companies.”
Stempel reports, “Other defendants in the case included Adobe Systems Inc, Intuit Inc, Walt Disney Co’s Pixar unit and Lucasfilm Ltd… The proposed class-action lawsuit was brought by five software engineers who accused the companies of conspiring to limit pay and job mobility by eliminating competition for labor, costing workers hundreds of millions of dollars. Their claims are similar to those raised in 2010 by the Department of Justice when it settled antitrust probes against the companies.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Court filing: Steve Jobs told Google’s Schmidt to stop poaching workers – January 27, 2012
Google battles to keep talent; gives 10% raise to 23,000 employees – November 11, 2010
Did Apple and Google make an anti-poaching deal? – August 9, 2009
great article
Note that Microsoft is not included in this litigation. Why? They didn’t need to collude with anyone over stealing their employees. No one wanted them.
Apple did – they recruited a MacroSloth employee to run the Data Farm Mother ship.
Capitalism at its best… So when are we going after the rest of the companies that have tons and tons more to explain?
BP… Shell… GM…
Who is going to after the Unions who do the same thing and don’t allow people to move or become better? Why are we just going after the most productive companies?
I think this is just BULL SH**!
“he proposed class-action lawsuit was brought by five software engineers who accused the companies of conspiring to limit pay and job mobility by eliminating competition for labor, costing workers hundreds of millions of dollars.”
So who was standing in the way of these engineers, stopping them approaching other employers? How do they arrive at those figures? I suggest nobody was stopping them, it’s just that because nobody was head-hunting them their feelings were hurt, and their self-worth was, in their minds, diminished, poor little dears!
Smart, but not smart enough to email a CV to prospective employers on spec.
This just stinks of the whole entitlement culture that has grown up, “Don’t you UNDERSTAND? The world owes me a really good living, Goddammit, and I’m going to sue to get it!”
A true capitalist pays the going rate in the free market for his resources. Engaging in the “no cold call” collusion stops a bidding war for talent from erupting. That helps to avoid the disruption from key employees leaving and means the companies get to pocket the wages they didn’t have to pay because they were able to suppress the natural supply and demand forces of the marketplace. It’s anti-capitalistic, even if Apple does it.
Judge Koh involved in another Apple case.
As Judge Koh presides in San Jose, this should not come as a surprise.