Lucasfilm Agrees to End Anti-Competitive Practices

Studio agrees to end practice of cold calling employees at rival Pixar

The Department of Justice  has reached a settlement with Lucasfilm that prevents it from engaging in anti-competitve practices.

As part of the settlement, the department said that Lucasfilm and its rival Pixar agreed not to cold call each other’s employees and agreed to notify each other when making an offer to an employee of the other company.

The settlement also bars Lucasfilm from giving employees a counter offer that is more valuable than the competing company's offer.

The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, along with a proposed settlement. It still needs court approval. 

Pixar was not named in the suit, because it settled similar charges last September, according to a department official. 

As part of that earlier settlement, Adobe, Apple., Google, Intel, and Intuit also agreed to end these practices. 

“The agreement between Lucasfilm and Pixar restrained competition for digital animators without any procompetitive justification and distorted the competitive process,” said Christine Varney, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The proposed settlement resolves the department’s antitrust concerns.”

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