Today, Filmmakers Collaborative SF launched a new film highlighting a successful antitrust legal action brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google, Apple, eBay, and other major technology companies in 2009. Public Knowledge President & CEO, Gene Kimmelman, provided commentary and insight for the project.
Entitled, “When Rules Don’t Apply,” the 28-minute free film explores the “no-poach” wage suppression agreement that swept Silicon Valley from 2005 to 2015, and the precedent-setting legal battles that challenged these practices. The industry-wide practice involved leading tech CEOs, including Apple’s Steve Jobs and Google’s Eric Schmidt, who secretly agreed not to recruit one another’s employees, thus restricting employee job opportunities and limiting employee wages. The 2013 class action lawsuit brought on behalf of 64,000 employees resulted in a $435 million settlement in 2014.
Funded by a grant resulting from a settlement between eBay and the California Attorney General’s office, “When Rules Don’t Apply” features a dozen leading experts in the field of antitrust and labor law, including Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman and other participants in the legal actions.
The following can be attributed to Public Knowledge President & CEO Gene Kimmelman:
“This film illustrates how antitrust enforcement can benefit workers as much as it benefits consumers and competition. By challenging anticompetitive limits on worker mobility, the Obama Administration opened the door for stronger private antitrust enforcement that can now be expanded to broader uses of antitrust, giving employees protection against monopoly abuse.”
You may view the free film here.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.