The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed two complaints in District of Columbia federal court alleging that no-solicit agreements among high-tech employers constitute an unlawful restraint on trade in the market for highly-skilled employees in the technology sector.
In United States v. Adobe Systems, Inc., the DOJ alleged that do-not-call agreements among Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel, Intuit and Pixar were formed as a result of communications between company executives to prohibit recruiters from contacting employees of cooperating firms to fill open positions.
My Take: This will be a very interesting case to follow. Courts and Judges always need to “see” the big picture. And, in my opinion, the big picture is that enforcing restrictive non-solicitation and non-compete agreements is bad for innovation and bad for the United States economy.