Pixar, Lucasfilm, Intuit Wage Theft Class Action Settlement Approved

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

On Friday, a California federal judge gave final approval to Intuit Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd. and Pixar’s $20 million class action settlement that will resolve antitrust claims that the technology companies entered into illegal agreements not to poach each other’s employees. The class action settlement was approved just days after a class representative protested a proposed $324 million deal with Google Inc., Apple Inc., Adobe Systems Inc. and Intel Corp.

Under the terms of the anti-poaching class action settlement, Intuit agreed to pay $11 million while Pixar and LucasFilm will pay $9 million to resolve the claims. According to the court documents, the deal will provide claimants with a fractional share based upon their total base salary during the alleged conspiracy period.

In approving the class action settlement, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh said that she was satisfied that the deal was reached “after arm’s length negotiations by capable counsel, and were not a product of fraud, overreaching, or collusion among the parties.”

While this class action settlement resolves the employee poaching allegations against Pixar, Lucasfilm and Intuit, the agreement preserves Class Members’ rights to seek damages from Google, Apple, Adobe and Intel.

According to the court documents, more than 11,000 Class Members submitted claims for the Pixar, LucasFilm and Intuit settlement, and 147 Class Members opted out. Five Class Members objected to the class action settlement, but Judge Koh ruled that the objections to the class action settlement did not favor the interests of the class. Judge Koh also found that the objections were contrary to the judicial policy favoring class action settlements.

Last month, Google, Apple, Adobe and Intel announced that they had reached a $324 million class action settlement over the employee poaching claims. That settlement has been condemned by a plaintiff who argued that the terms were “grossly inadequate” and does not rectify the unjust hiring policies that allegedly kept the tech workers’ wages artificially low.

The tech company anti-poaching class action lawsuits stemmed from a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the hiring practices of several Silicon Valley tech companies. The investigation revealed that these tech giants engaged in anticompetitive behavior by agreeing not to recruit each other’s engineers.

The plaintiffs are represented by Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and Joseph Saveri Law Firm Inc.

The Tech Worker Anti-Poaching Class Action Lawsuit is In re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 5:11-cv-02509, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

More information on the cases in the In re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation can be found at www.hightechemployeelawsuit.com.

If you think that you have missed out on unpaid overtime or other pay, you may be able to begin a wage and hour lawsuit to seek damages from your current or former employer. The first step is to determine whether or not you are eligible. You can do so by taking advantage of the free case eligibility review available to all those who fill out the case submission form at the Wage & Hour, Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit Investigation.