Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt conspired to fix engineers' wages — $415M settlement

Between 2005 and 2009, the CEOs of the biggest technology companies in the world made a secret pact: they would not recruit each other's employees. Steve Jobs of Apple and Eric Schmidt of Google were the primary orchestrators. Bilateral 'no cold call' agreements were signed between Apple and Google, Apple and Adobe, Apple and Intel, Google and Intel, Google and Intuit, and Pixar, Lucasfilm, and others. Any company that hired an employee from a partner had to notify them in advance, and counteroffers were forbidden.

The scheme was revealed in 2009 when the Department of Justice began investigating. In 2010, the DOJ sued Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit and Pixar for violating the Sherman Act. The companies settled in 2011 without admitting wrongdoing, agreeing not to enter such agreements for five years. A class-action lawsuit followed in 2011 on behalf of over 64,000 affected employees, alleging the conspiracy had suppressed their wages by keeping them from receiving competitive offers.

Steve Jobs's emails were the smoking gun. In one exchange, Jobs personally threatened to file a patent lawsuit against a company that hired an Apple engineer — not because of any patent violation, but as punishment for the hire. Schmidt personally instructed Google HR to add Apple employees to a 'do not contact' list. In 2015, Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel agreed to a $415 million settlement to resolve the class action — about $5,770 per class member. The settlement was one of the largest antitrust class-action awards in US labor history.