LinkedIn Must Face Competition Suit by ‘People Analytics’ Rival

HiQ Labs Inc. can move forward with claims that LinkedIn Corp. wrongly cut off the “people analytics” company’s ability to scrape data from user profiles, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled.

Although LinkedIn’s cease-and-desist letters might count as pre-litigation “petitioning” activity that can’t form the basis for a standalone lawsuit, they allegedly “reinforced” a broader “overall anti-competitive scheme” that “centers on nonpetitioning activity” like blocking hiQ, Judge Edward M. Chen wrote.

He gave a green light to hiQ’s intentional interference claims while tossing its antitrust allegations, for now, on other grounds.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court ...