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Shareholder Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple

Kate Patrick Contributor
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An Apple shareholder filed a class action lawsuit against Apple and the Estate of Steve Jobs, accusing the tech giant of violating antitrust laws by entering into “anti-competitive, anti-solicitation” agreements with Adobe, Google, and Intel, according to a news release by Patently Apple.

These agreements, which violated antitrust laws, involved mutual agreements between the companies to not recruit each others’ employees. R. Andre Klein, the shareholder in question, filed the lawsuit after a judge rejected a $324 million settlement between Apple, Adobe, Google, and Intel, accusing Apple of causing “millions of dollars in damages to Apple and its shareholders.”

The four counts listed against Apple are as follows:

Count I: Violation of § 14(a) of the Exchange Act against Defendants Campbell, Cook, Drexler, Iger, Jung, and Levinson.

Count II: Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Aiding and Abetting Breach of Fiduciary Duty against All Individual Defendants

Count III: Gross Mismanagement against All Individual Defendants

Count IV: Waste of Corporate Assets against All Individual Defendants

Klein’s complaint, which lists current Apple CEO Tim Cook and the Estate of Steve Jobs among the defendants, specifically attacks former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

“Jobs’s conduct is a reminder that even widely respected businessmen can knowingly commit unlawful acts in the zealous pursuit of profits,” the complaint reads. “In this case, Jobs and the other individual defendants knowingly caused Apple to enter into agreements that violated California law and US antitrust laws.”

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