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US: Apple, Google spared from facing thousands in class action

By  |  April 5, 2013

Seven major companies have reportedly been granted a court order to block employees – potentially thousands of them – from joining together in a group lawsuit to argue that the companies made non-compete agreements, conspiring to not recruit each others’ employees. The plaintiffs alleged that their salaries were kept down due to those agreements. Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systes Inc., Walt Disney Co.’s Pixar animation unit, Intuit Inc. and Lucasfilm Lid. Are named as defendants. While US District Judge Lucy Koh allowed the case to proceed, and noted that the employees may re-file their claims, the judge ruled that the case cannot be certified as a class action as the plaintiffs failed to offer sufficient proof that all or nearly all members were negatively affected by the agreements. The plaintiffs had argued that the agreements affected more than 160,000 employees within various job categories.

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