Former employees of Apple, Google, and a number of other tech companies will not as yet be able to claim class action status in their lawsuit that accuses the companies of a conspiracy by agreeing not to poach each other’s employees.
U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh ruled in a decision made public Friday that the plaintiffs in the poaching case had not yet adequately demonstrated that they had been harmed by the anti-poaching agreements between the companies, according to Reuters. Along with Google and Apple, the suit — High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 11-02509 — names Adobe, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, and Lucasfilm.
Koh did leave open the option for the plaintiffs to try again later, citing the amounts of evidence produced since she initially heard oral arguments in the case.
The plaintiffs charge that agreements made by seven companies constitute a violation of the Sherman antitrust law, and California’s Cartwright Act. In April 2012, Koh rejected the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case, saying that the agreements amongst the companies had been made in secrecy over two years, indicating collusion, not coincidence.
In January, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Intel’s Paul Otellini were ordered to submit to questioning.
So far, the most notable piece of evidence to come to light has been a 2007 email that late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sent to Google’s Schmidt, requesting that Google stop hiring Apple employees.
