Plaintiffs Seek Final Approval of Apple, Google Anti-Poaching Class Action Settlement

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.

The plaintiffs who charged Apple, Google and other tech companies with having a secret agreement not to recruit software engineers from each other’s companies are asking a California federal judge to give final approval to the $415 million class action settlement.

The plaintiffs told U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh that of the 64,466 Class Members, only 11 had objections to the anti-poaching class action settlement, and only 56 opted out.

“The settlement is, by far, the largest amount ever recovered in a class action asserting antitrust claims by employees against their employers, either on an aggregate or per-class-member basis,” the motion states.

“This result is particularly impressive in light of the fact that the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice resolved its investigation into the same alleged misconduct without seeking any penalties or restitution whatsoever,” the plaintiffs explain.

And almost half of those who did object, mostly took issue with the amount of the class action settlement, without taking other matters into consideration, the plaintiffs say.

“None of these class members adequately take into account the risks and delays involved in proceeding to trial,” the motion to approve the anti-poaching class action settlement states.

“They ignore that the settlement provides the class with a timely, certain, and meaningful cash recovery, while a trial — and any subsequent appeal — is highly uncertain, would entail significant additional costs, and in any event would substantially delay any recovery achieved,” they add.

The other reasons Class Members objected includes having problems with the class action lawsuit itself, wanting the matter to go to trial, or taking issue with how the settlement fund will be allocated.

The hearing for final approval of the anti-poaching class action settlement is July 9. Judge Koh will also rule on attorneys’ fees as well. The plaintiffs are asking for $87 million for their counsel.

Judge Koh preliminarily approved the $415 million class action settlement in March after she had previously rejected a $325 million proposed settlement in August 2014. The anti-poaching class action settlement was reached between the parties in January.

When Judge Koh rejected the $325 million class action settlement proposal, she said it was about $55 million lower than what it should be.

This class action settlement proposal was also not opposed by plaintiff Michael Devine like the proposed $325 million class action settlement.

The Apple, Google anti-poaching class action lawsuit was filed by tech employees about four years ago alleging that the companies kept salaries for software engineers artificially low after making secret deals with each other that they wouldn’t try to hire, or poach, from each others’ companies when looking for new software engineers.

When Judge Koh rejected the first class action settlement proposal, she said that there was sufficient evidence to show a conspiracy between the companies and their executives that there was indeed an agreement not to hire from other tech companies, which included email conversations between top officials at the companies.

The original anti-trust class action lawsuit was filed against Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar in May 2011 after the Justice Department revealed what it learned following an anti-trust investigation, in which the the senior executives of the tech companies had apparently struck deals with each other not to hire employees from each others’ companies. The agreement also allegedly led to de facto salary caps and prevented upward mobility.

It was alleged that the anti-poaching agreement led to a 10 to 15 percent reduction in salaries for tech engineers. The class is made up of about 64,000 software engineers.

Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar paid $20 million in a class action settlement in May 2014, which was approved by Judge Koh.

The software engineers are represented by Kelly M. Dermody, Richard M. Heimann, Brendan P. Glackin, Dean M. Harvey and Anne B. Shaver of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, Joseph R. Saveri and James G. Dallal of Joseph Saveri Law Firm Inc., Eric L. Cramer, Sarah Rebecca Schalman-Bergen of Shanon Jude Carson of Berger & Montague PC, Peter A. Barile III and Robert G. Eisler of Grant & Eisenhofer PA and Christina H. Sharp, Daniel C. Girard and Elizabeth Antonia Kramer of Girard Gibbs LLP.

Google is represented by Donald M. Falk, Lee H. Rubin, Edward D. Johnson and Kristen A. Rowse of Mayer Brown LLP and Robert A. Van Nest, Daniel Purcell, Eugene M. Paige and Justina K. Sessions of Keker & Van Nest LLP. Apple is represented by George A. Riley, Michael F. Tubach and Christina J. Brown of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Intel is represented by Gregory P. Stone, Bradley S. Phillips, Gregory M. Sergi and John P. Mittelbach ofMunger Tolles & Olson LLP. Adobe is represented by Robert A. Mittelstaedt and David C. Kiernan of Jones Day.

The Tech Company 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.

UPDATE: The high-tech employee class action settlement has paid out! Checks were mailed the week of December 21, 2015. If you received a check, let us know in the comments. Congrats to everyone who got paid!