The Silicon Valley No-Poach Conspiracy
Eric A. Posner & Ruth Zheng, May 7, 2025
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/law_and_economics/1033/
Abstract
The Silicon Valley no-poach conspiracy is the most important cartel no one has heard of. It is rarely discussed in the cartel literature and is lost to public memory. More than forty tech firms, including Apple and Google, agreed not to poach employees from one another over three decades, causing an estimated $3.1 billion in lost wages. The Justice Department discovered and broke apart the cartel in 2010, but did not punish the cartel members, who quickly settled with employees and never admitted guilt. However, the case foreshadowed, and perhaps helped spur, two major developments in antitrust law a decade later: the rise of labor antitrust and the erosion of the tech companies’ aura of antitrust invincibility.
Eric A. Posner & Ruth Zheng, May 7, 2025
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/law_and_economics/1033/
Abstract
The Silicon Valley no-poach conspiracy is the most important cartel no one has heard of. It is rarely discussed in the cartel literature and is lost to public memory. More than forty tech firms, including Apple and Google, agreed not to poach employees from one another over three decades, causing an estimated $3.1 billion in lost wages. The Justice Department discovered and broke apart the cartel in 2010, but did not punish the cartel members, who quickly settled with employees and never admitted guilt. However, the case foreshadowed, and perhaps helped spur, two major developments in antitrust law a decade later: the rise of labor antitrust and the erosion of the tech companies’ aura of antitrust invincibility.