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.
Featured News
Publishers Ask US Court to Let Them Join Google AI Copyright Fight
Jan 18, 2026 by
CPI
California Investigates xAI for Role in Deepfake Image Generation
Jan 18, 2026 by
CPI
Google Asks Judge to Pause Data-Sharing Order While Appealing Antitrust Ruling
Jan 18, 2026 by
CPI
FTC Signals Closer Look at Big Tech Acqui-Hires as Antitrust Concerns Grow
Jan 18, 2026 by
CPI
Italian Authority Probes Monetization Practices in Popular Mobile Games
Jan 18, 2026 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – CRESSE Insights
Dec 16, 2025 by
CPI
Learning from Divergence: The Role of Cross-Country Comparisons in the Evaluation of the DMA
Dec 16, 2025 by
Federico Bruni
New Regulatory Tools for the EU Foreign Direct Investment Screening and Foreign Subsidies Regulation
Dec 16, 2025 by
Ioannis Kokkoris
“Suite Dreams”: Market Definition and Complementarity in the Digital Age
Dec 16, 2025 by
Romain Bizet & Matteo Foschi
The Interaction Between Competition Policy and Consumer Protection: Institutional Design, Behavioral Insights, and Emerging Challenges in Digital Markets
Dec 16, 2025 by
Alessandra Tonazzi