Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Faces Deposition in Antitrust Trial

Facebook's second in command, Sheryl Sandberg will be questioned on whether or not seven tech companies broke antitrust laws by conspiring not to recruit employees from one another.

Although Sandberg nor Facebook are defendants, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, issued a ruling for a deposition around April 23, according to Bloomberg News. However, Google gave the court 13 pages which included spreadsheets with compensation, three calendar entries and Sandberg's employment agreement with Google.

The defendants in the case are Apple, Adobe Systems, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar. The suit alleges that the defendants entered into the agreement to not poach employees and hid the agreements from employees. Further, the companies then enforced the agreements by monitoring each other. Lawyers from the employees say that this hurt employees' job prospects and pay and both sides are awaiting Koh's decision to proceed as class-action lawsuit.

In 2010, employee-poaching was rampant and this led to many of the companies talking to one another and creating "agreements." While this may not sound terrible, the idea that all these tech companies are doing this and sharing compensation files, could lead to lower salaries and other blatant manipulation of the system -- all at the expense of the employee and to the benefit of the company.