The Justice Department has sued eBay over what it dubbed an illegal agreement with Intuit not to headhunt the company's staff. The DoJ feels that the deal eliminated competition for workers, depriving them of access to better job opportunities.

The deal was hatched by Meg Whitman who was then eBay's CEO, and Scott Cook, Intuit's founder. Cook was serving on eBay's board at the same time he was complaining about eBay's headhunting of Intuit employees. EBay said it will vigorously defend itself and the government was wrong.

It said that EBay's hiring practices conform to the standards that the Department of Justice has approved in resolving cases against other companies. Tax and financial software company Intuit, which faced similar antitrust allegations in 2010 and settled, called the new lawsuits a matter for eBay.

A spokesman for Whitman, who left eBay in early 2008 and now makes expensive printer ink for HP, declined to comment.

More here.