Anti trust hiring practices at tech companies?

Washington Post:

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation's largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review.

The review, which is said to be in its preliminary stages, is focused on the search engine giant Google; its competitor Yahoo; Apple, maker of the popular iPhone; and the biotech firm Genentech, among others, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Justice Department officials declined to comment about an investigation, as did officials from Google and Yahoo. Apple and Genentech didn't immediately respond to requests for an interview.

The sources said the review includes other tech companies and is "industry-wide." By agreeing not to hire away top talent, the companies could be stifling competition and trying to maintain their market power unfairly, antitrust experts said.

"This could be collusive restraint on trade, which could have a serious impact on competition," said Albert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute.

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I don't think I have ever seen an anti trust case over hiring practices. Most companies in situations like this require their employees to sign non compete contracts and also agree not to reveal trade secrets. These contracts could obviously lead to competitors not willing to hire employees from another firm. The restrictions have to be time limited on teh non compete, but not on the trade secrets. Usually the argument becomes whether the employee has revealed trade secrets. Perhaps there is more to this matter than is revealed in the report in the Post. On the face of it there does not appear to be much of a case.