The Department of Justice Sept. 24 said it struck an antitrust settlement
with Google, Apple, Adobe Systems, Intel, Intuit and Pixar that prevents them
from agreeing not to poach each other's employees for the next 5 years.
The DOJ, which has investigated practices by the six technology companies
for the last year, filed
a civil antitrust complaint concurrent with the settlement deal in U.S.
District Court.
At issue for the antitrust division for the DOJ was the so-called practice
of "cold calling," where companies enter into agreements with rivals
to refrain from calling employees who were on "do not call" lists
compiled by their rivals.
These employees tended to be top guns at the companies they worked for,
possessing not only special skills but deep knowledge of their current
employers that would prove valuable for rival companies if they left to join
them.
Google, which entered into at least three such agreements covered in the
DOJ's investigation, said it started this practice in 2005 to maintain a "good
working relationship with these companies," which included Apple, Intel
and Intuit.
The DOJ viewed this as collusion, claiming it "eliminated a significant
form of competition to attract highly skilled employees, and overall diminished
competition to the detriment of affected employees who were likely deprived of
competitively important information and access to better job
opportunities."
The agreements, between Apple and Google, Apple and Adobe, Apple and Pixar,
and Google and Intel, were as follows, according to the DOJ:
- Apple and Google executives
in 2006 agreed not to cold call each other's employees, putting them on
internal "do not call lists."
- In May 2005, senior Apple and
Adobe executives agreed not to cold call each other's
employees.
- In April 2007, Apple and
Pixar executives agreed not to cold call each other's employees.
- In September 2007, Google and
Intel executives agreed not to cold call each other's employees, with Google
listing Intel among the companies that it may not cold call in its hiring
policies and protocol manual.
- In June 2007, Google and
Intuit executives agreed that Google would not cold call any Intuit
employee.
The DOJ noted that, if approved by the district court, the settlement will
prohibit the companies from striking such "anticompetitive no solicitation
agreements."
Meanwhile, the companies admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
"While there's no evidence that our policy hindered hiring or affected
wages, we abandoned our 'no cold calling' policy in late 2009 once the Justice
Department raised concerns, and are happy to continue with this approach as
part of this settlement," said Amy Lambert, associate general counsel for
employment for Google.
"We have agreed to disagree with the DOJ on the issue of any wrongdoing
in this matter," Laura Fennell, Intuit senior vice president and general
counsel, told eWEEK in a statement.
"We do not intend to enter into the types of broad non-solicit
agreements that are prohibited by the settlement."
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