Civil class action
In re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California 11-cv-2509[10]) is a class-action lawsuit on behalf of over 64,000 employees of Adobe, Apple Inc., Google, Intel, Intuit, Pixar and Lucasfilm (the last two are subsidiaries of Disney) against their employer alleging that their wages were repressed due to alleged agreements between their employers not to hire employees from their competitors.[11][12] The case was filed on May 4, 2011 by a former software engineer at Lucasfilm and alleges violations of California's antitrust statute, Business and Professions Code sections 16720 et seq. (the "Cartwright Act"); Business and Professions Code section 16600; and California's unfair competition law, Business and Professions Code sections 17200, et seq. Focusing on the network of connections around former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the Complaint alleged "an interconnected web of express agreements, each with the active involvement and participation of a company under the control of Steve Jobs ... and/or a company that shared at least one member of Apple's board of directors". The alleged intent of this conspiracy was "to reduce employee compensation and mobility through eliminating competition for skilled labor".[13]
On October 24, 2013, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted class certification for all employees of Defendant companies from January 1, 2005 through January 1, 2010.[14]
As of October 31, 2013, Intuit, Pixar and Lucasfilm had reached a tentative settlement agreement. Pixar and Lucasfilm agreed to pay $9 million in damages, and Intuit agreed to pay $11 million in damages.[14] In May 2014, Judge Lucy Koh approved the $20 million settlement between Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Intuit and their employees. Class members in this settlement, which involved fewer than 8% of the 65,000 employees affected, were to receive around $3,840 each.[15]
The trial of the class action for the remaining Defendant companies was scheduled to begin on May 27, 2014. The plaintiffs intended to ask the jury for $3 billion in compensation, a number which could in turn have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law.[16] However, in late April 2014, the four remaining defendants – Apple Inc, Google, Intel and Adobe Systems – agreed to settle out of court. Any settlement was to be approved by Judge Lucy Koh.[17][18]
On May 23, 2014, Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe agreed to settle for $324.5 million. Lawyers sought 25% in attorneys' fees, plus expenses of as much as $1.2 million, according to the filing. Additional award payments of $80,000 were sought for each named plaintiff who served as a class representative.[19] Payouts were to average a few thousand dollars based on the salary of the employee at the time of the complaint.[20]
In June 2014, Judge Lucy Koh expressed concern that the settlement would not be a good one for the plaintiffs. Michael Devine, one of the plaintiffs, said the settlement was unjust. In a letter he wrote to the judge he said the settlement represented only one-tenth of the $3 billion in compensation the 64,000 workers could have made if the defendants had not colluded.[21]
On August 8, 2014, Judge Koh rejected the settlement as insufficient on the basis of the evidence and exposure. Rejecting a settlement is unusual in such cases. This left the defendants with a choice between raising their settlement offer or facing a trial.[22]
On September 8, 2014, Judge Koh set April 9, 2015 as the actual trial date for the remaining defendants, with a pre-trial conference scheduled for December 19, 2014. Also, as of early September 2014, the defendants had re-entered mediation to determine whether a new settlement could be reached.[23]
A final approval hearing was held on July 9, 2015.[24] On Wednesday September 2, 2015, Judge Lucy H. Koh signed an order granting Motion for Final Approval of Class Action Settlement.[25]
The settlement website stated that Adobe, Apple, Google, and Intel had reached a settlement of $415 million and other companies settled for $20 million.[20] According to the settlement website, Gilardi & Co., LLC distributed the settlement to class members the week of December 21, 2015.[26]
