U.S. judge approves $415 million
settlement in tech worker lawsuit
Send a link to a friend
[September 03, 2015]
By Dan Levine
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on
Wednesday granted final approval to a $415 million settlement that ends
a high profile lawsuit in which workers accused Apple, Google and two
other Silicon Valley companies of conspiring to hold down salaries.
|
The plaintiffs alleged that Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Corp and
Adobe Systems Inc agreed to avoid poaching each other's employees,
thus limiting job mobility and, as a result, keeping a lid on
salaries.
In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose,
California, found the deal was fair to the thousands of plaintiff
workers in the class action.
Attorneys representing those workers had asked for about $81 million
in fees. However, Koh decided such an award would be an
inappropriate "windfall" for the lawyers, and awarded about $40
million instead.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Sep/03/images/ads/current/napa_bch1-3108.png) The antitrust class action lawsuit was filed in 2011. It has been
closely watched because of the possibility that big damages might be
awarded and for the opportunity to peek into the world of some elite
U.S. tech firms.
The case was based largely on emails in which Apple co-founder Steve
Jobs, former Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt and some of
their rivals detailed plans to avoid poaching each other's prized
engineers.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Sep/03/images/ads/current/Symphony_lda_091814.png)
The case is In Re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of California 11-cv-2509.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Robert Birsel)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Sep/03/images/ads/current/cca_laptop-sda021709.png) |