Lawsuit Alleges Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Other Execs Conspired To Keep Engineer Wages Low

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-google-anti-trust-2013-10



(Reuters) - A U.S. judge accorded class action status to a lawsuit that alleges broad conspiracy among major Silicon Valley companies to suppress employee compensation by not poaching each other's employees, a court filing showed.

By winning the class certification, the plaintiffs would have more leverage to extract larger financial settlements than if they were to sue individually.

In 2011, five software engineers sued Adobe Systems Inc, Intel Corp, Apple Inc and Google Inc among others over their hiring practices, alleging that the Silicon Valley companies entered into an "overarching conspiracy" to suppress employee compensation to artificially low levels.

The defendants were accused of violating the Sherman Act and Clayton Act antitrust laws by conspiring to eliminate competition for labor, depriving workers of job mobility and hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.



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