LinkedIn, Plaintiffs Denied Settlement in Monopolization Lawsuit

A federal judge rejected preliminary approval of a deal designed to settle claims that LinkedIn Corp. holds a monopoly in the professional social networking market and overcharged “Premium” subscribers.

Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday flagged “several obvious deficiencies” in the proposed settlement, including a three-year limit on injunctive relief.

The deal, as proposed by the plaintiffs, would have stopped LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., for three years from enforcing certain “noncompetition” provisions of data-access agreements—deals that allegedly allowed the company to dominate the industry.

But ...