US: Non-poaching legal action hits its next victim, Oracle

A lawsuit was filed against technology company Oracle accusing the firm of colluding with rivals to not hire each other’s employees, the same allegations that have plagued major Silicon Valley firms including Apple and Google.

A lawsuit was filed this week is seeking to join the ongoing litigation against Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe, whose settlement offer is currently on appeal.

According to court documents, the lawsuit against Oracle should be joined with the other because a “substantial portion of both cases concerns the same parties and events. These two cases concern overlapping conspiracies that each grew out of the same unlawful anti-solicitation agreement between Google and others, including Oracle.”

Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe have offered $325.4 million to settle the allegations with a class of 64,000 employees. That deal was denied by IS District Judge Lucy Koh, who criticized the offer as inadequate even though the class had approved of the deal.

Now, however, as the defendants fight to have the offer approved by an appellate court, the employees now agree that the settlement is too little.

Full content: Businesweek

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.