Apple, Google, Intel and four other technology companies will have to face, by court order, an antitrust lawsuit

 alleging that they illegally made ​​arrangements to limit the hiring of one another.

Judge Lucy Koh San Jose, U.S. State of California, rejected the request of the companies to abandon the complaints under a federal antitrust law and on own state antitrust laws.

In a decision on Wednesday (18), Koh said that the existence of agreements on"non-interference" is a "reasonable inference that such agreements were negotiated, made ​​and applied at the highest levels" of companies.

"The fact that all six bilateral agreements were reached in secret identical among seven defendants in a period of two years suggests that these agreements are the result of something planned, not a coincidence," he added.

Other defendants are Adobe Systems, Intuit, Pixar (Walt Disney), and Lucasfilm.Koh refused a claim made under the law of fair competition in California.

Lawyers for the companies were not immediately available for comment.

The whole process has been open for five software engineers who accuse the companies of conspiring to limit wages and job mobility by eliminating theconcorrêcia jobs, costing workers hundreds of thousands of dollars