A Ninth Circuit panel rejected the efforts of Apple, Inc., Google, Inc. and other major technology companies to overturn a lower court’s class certification in a suit accusing the companies of violating antitrust laws by agreeing not to poach one another’s employees.  In a brief opinion, the court denied the defendants permission to appeal the district court’s class certification.

U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh certified the class in October, ruling the engineers’ antitrust claims and damages could be proved on a classwide basis. Though Judge Koh denied the plaintiffs’ original bid for class certification in April, she concluded that the additional evidence and expert testimony they had provided since then cleared the bar for certification. Continue reading “Appeal by Apple, Google and other tech companies of antitrust class certification rejected”