Epic Systems No-Poach Lawsuit Investigation: Did a Deal Suppress Your Pay?

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether a class action lawsuit can be filed on behalf of technical workers who specialize in Epic Systems’ electronic health records platforms.

Specifically, they believe Epic Systems and its healthcare provider and consultant clients may have entered into anticompetitive employee non-solicitation agreements, commonly called “no-poach” agreements, wherein they agreed not to recruit, solicit or hire each other’s software employees. No-poach agreements often have the effect of restricting competition for specialized workers, which can lead to lower wages, reduced employment opportunities and fewer benefits.

How Could a No-Poach Deal Suppress Your Pay?

A no-poach agreement is essentially an agreement between companies, whether as a written contract or an informal understanding, not to compete for each other’s employees, which essentially eliminates the need for employers to offer attractive salaries and benefits in order to keep their best employees.

For instance, in 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and settlement with six tech firms—Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel, Intuit and Pixar—claiming they deprived their workers of competitively important information and access to better job opportunities by entering into non-solicitation agreements. According to the DOJ, the no-poach agreements prevented the companies from directly soliciting each other’s highly skilled employees.

The DOJ noted that tech employees with specialized skills or training are in high demand, and companies often directly recruit these types of workers through “cold calling.” According to the DOJ, the six tech firms’ agreements to not cold call each other’s employees interfered with the competitive process through which these workers could otherwise obtain better opportunities and higher pay.

The DOJ settlement prohibited the companies from entering, maintaining or enforcing any agreement that prevented them from soliciting, cold calling, recruiting or otherwise competing for employees.

How Could a Lawsuit Help Epic Software Specialists?

If filed and successful, a lawsuit could help affected workers recover money for any damages they may have experienced as a result of anticompetitive agreements between Epic and its clients. For instance, workers may be able to recover money for suppressed pay and reduced career opportunities.

A lawsuit could also prohibit Epic and its clients from entering into or enforcing any non-solicitation agreement that restricts competition among their employees.

For example, Papa John’s reached a $5 million settlement in 2025 to resolve a lawsuit that claimed the pizza chain’s franchise agreements contained illegal no-poach clauses that prevented franchisees from hiring each other’s employees. The settlement provided payments to affected workers and required Papa John’s to provide antitrust compliance training for executives and notify franchisees of its commitment not to enforce no-poach agreements.

What You Can Do

After you get in touch, an attorney or legal representative may reach out to you directly to ask you some questions and explain how you may be able to help get a lawsuit started. It costs nothing to fill out the form and speak with someone, and you’re not obligated to take legal action.

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