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Specifically, the large competing VFX and animation studios are said to have agreed on a salary ceiling and assured one another that they would not poach employees from each other – something also referred to in the industry as "No Poaching".
Four years ago, there was similar conduct in Silicon Valley involving the companies Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe, in which the US Department of Justice launched an investigation. The current lawsuit now refers to this incident. All VFX and animation companies are alleged to have colluded in order to suppress the wages of all employees and to have torpedoed their chance of perhaps having better career opportunities at other companies. According to a report by Cartoon Brew, one of the principal architects in orchestrating the industry is said to have been Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull.
Artist Robert Nitsch is said to have filed the lawsuit with the help of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, a firm specialising in class actions. Email communications are said to have surfaced so far that partially incriminate the studios. So far, only Disney has commented on the allegations: the studio believes the allegations are unfounded and without merit, and they will vigorously oppose them. As with all legal proceedings, it will take time before a final judgment is reached.
But it has to be said, for anyone who knows the industry and has had even a brief look inside the very large studios and their business policies: the allegations do not feel entirely pulled out of thin air, do they?
