LG/Samsung
Anti-Poaching

The Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP filed an antitrust class action lawsuit in September 2016 on behalf of current and former LG and Samsung employees against the two electronics giants in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The suit, Frost v. LG Corporation, et al., sought monetary damages for current and former LG and Samsung employees. It allegd that LG and Samsung entered into an illegal no-poaching agreement, barring them from hiring one another’s employees and limiting workers’ access to mobility and compensation. Both companies are Korea-based electronics companies with an established presence in Silicon Valley, and both target high technology workers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Employees blame LG and Samsung for restricting employee mobility, wages, benefits, and other compensation, and say these impacts have been heightened by the companies’ substantial similarities.

“Electronics giants LG and Samsung have conspired to enhance their profit margins through this illegal no-poaching agreement,” says Joseph Saveri, counsel for the plaintiffs. “Meanwhile, their employees have found themselves in a stagnant work environment with limited opportunity for growth, unable to switch companies or to demand higher wages.”

No-poaching agreements have come under fire since 2010, when the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating Google, Intel, Apple, Adobe, Lucasfilm, Intuit, and Pixar for allegedly agreeing not to hire each other’s employees. The firm previously served as co-lead counsel for a class of workers challenging these companies’ agreements, and reached a total settlement of $435 million.