'No poaching' case versus Google, Apple, others can go to trial
A lawsuit that accuses Google, Apple and other top Silicon Valley companies of driving down wages by agreeing not to hire each other's workers can go to trial, a judge ruled on Friday.
The case alleges that executives including former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt agreed not to poach the other's workers during a period between 2005 and 2009. The alleged agreements would violate state and federal antitrust laws. Adobe Systems and Intel are also named as defendants.
Similarities among the alleged agreements, and the defendants' knowledge of them and other matters, provide enough evidence that a jury must decide if there was an overarching conspiracy, Judge Lucy Koh wrote in a ruling Friday at the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. A trial date has been set for May 27.
