Labor Employment Law Blog

Ending an investigation launched more than a year ago, on September 24, 2010, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice entered into an agreement with Google Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and Pixar Animation settling charges that the companies' bilateral agreements prohibiting cold-calling of their employees violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In a complaint also filed on September 24th, the Division alleges that the companies compete for highly skilled technical employees and that their concerted behavior "reduced their ability to compete for employees and disrupted normal price-setting mechanisms that apply in the labor setting." U.S. v. Adobe Systems, Inc., Complaint, online. The Division contends the agreements are facially anticompetitive because "they eliminated a significant form of competition to attract high tech employees" and "substantially diminished competition to the detriment of high tech employees who were likely deprived of important information and access to better job opportunities."
 

A California Court of Appeal has recently held that a subsequent employer can be liable for wrongful termination in violation of public policy for firing a new employee when her prior employer attempted to enforce an unenforceable non-compete agreement.

In Mattel, Inc. v. MGA Entertainment, Inc., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the trial court's judgment awarding Mattel ownership rights to the Bratz brand of dolls. This decision was reached, in part, on a finding that the trial court erred in ruling that the employment agreement between Mattel and former employee Carter Bryant, assigned Bryant's "ideas" to Mattel.