A class-action lawsuit filed in a California federal district court in 2013 accused Adobe and Apple, Google, and Intel of suppressing employee compensation through agreements or practices that limited recruitment among one another’s workforces. The allegations concerned approximately 64,000 employees and challenged conduct that plaintiffs said weakened workers’ ability to compete for higher salaries in Silicon Valley’s technology labor market.
In May 2014, the four companies agreed to pay $324.5 million to settle the case. The settlement resolved the litigation without a trial finding on every allegation, so it should not be treated as an adjudicated determination that each company violated antitrust law. It nevertheless imposed a substantial financial consequence and became a prominent example of scrutiny over labor-market coordination by dominant technology companies.
