LinkedIn executives can be questioned in antitrust lawsuit, judge rules

A group of current and former senior LinkedIn ​executives including billionaire co-founder Reid Hoffman ​can be questioned in a lawsuit accusing the ​company of illegally monopolizing the professional social media market, a federal judge has ruled.

Here are the details:

* U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco said in an order on ‌Tuesday that the ⁠plaintiffs ⁠can depose LinkedIn's current chief executive Daniel Shapero for four hours, and question former CEO Hoffman ​for three hours. Hoffman sold LinkedIn to Microsoft for $26.2 billion in 2016.


* LinkedIn had ​urged Beeler to bar the plaintiffs from questioning the executives as part of the lawsuit, contending they didn't have first-hand information and that information should first ​be obtained elsewhere.

* Beeler found the plaintiffs met ⁠the high ‌bar necessary to question top corporate executives.

* The lawsuit, ​filed in ​2022, alleges LinkedIn unlawfully controlled more than 97% of the ⁠professional networking market and is using its dominance to charge ​excessive prices for premium subscriptions. LinkedIn has called the ​claims baseless and said "no amount of additional discovery will change that." Microsoft is not a defendant. Lawyers for the plaintiffs declined to comment.

* LinkedIn last year agreed to settle the case, but U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. in Oakland rejected the proposed settlement, finding problems with the deal. The agreement ‌would have required LinkedIn to change certain business practices but provided no monetary compensation to users.

* Gilliam hasn't yet ruled on ​whether to allow ​the lawsuit to move ⁠forward as a class action. In court filings, the plaintiffs have said there are potentially hundreds of thousands of class members. The social networking platform has ​grown to more than 1.3 billion members since its sale to Microsoft.

The case is Todd Crowder et al v. LinkedIn Corp, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 4:22-cv-00237-HSG.

For plaintiffs: Yavar Bathaee and Brian Dunne of Bathaee Dunne

For defendant: Russell Cohen and Julia Chapman of Dechert

Read more: US judge rejects LinkedIn antitrust settlement, citing 'serious problems'