Department of Justice
Justice Department Requires eBay to End Anticompetitive “No Poach” Hiring Agreements
The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with eBay that prevents the company from entering into or maintaining agreements with other companies restraining employee recruitment and hiring.
The department’s Antitrust Division filed the proposed settlement in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. If approved by the court, the settlement would resolve the department’s competitive concerns and the original lawsuit filed on Nov 16, 2012.
In its lawsuit, the department alleged that senior executives and directors of eBay and Intuit entered into an agreement, beginning no later than 2006, that prevented each firm from recruiting employees from the other and that prohibited eBay from hiring Intuit employees that approached eBay.
The agreement between eBay and Intuit diminished important competition between the firms to attract highly skilled technical and other employees to the detriment of affected employees who had less access to better job opportunities and higher pay. The proposed settlement would prohibit eBay from entering or maintaining anticompetitive agreements relating to employee hiring and retention for five years.
Conspirators in Two Android Mobile Device App Piracy Groups Plead Guilty
Members of two different piracy groups engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android mobile device applications have pleaded guilty for their roles in separate schemes, each designed to distribute more than one million copies of copyrighted apps.
Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, US Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia and Special Agent in Charge Britt Johnson of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office made the announcement. Thomas Pace, 38, of Oregon City (OR), pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and is scheduled for sentencing on July 9, 2104.
According to the information filed on Jan 24, 2014, Pace and his fellow conspirators identified themselves as the Appbucket Group, and from August 2010 to August 2012, they conspired with other members of the Appbucket Group to reproduce and distribute more than one million copies of copyrighted Android mobile device apps, with a total retail value of over $700,000, through the Appbucket alternative online market without permission from the copyright owners of the apps.
Two other defendants charged in the information -- Thomas Dye and Appbucket Group leader Nicholas Narbone -- pleaded guilty to the same charge in the information on March 10 and March 24, 2014, respectively.