LinkedIn Corp. has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by current and former participants in a 401(k) plan who accused the company and plan fiduciaries of violating ERISA.
The parties filed an agreement in principle with a U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 4. No terms were disclosed. Details are due Dec. 9.
Plaintiffs sued LinkedIn and plan fiduciaries in August 2020, alleging high fees and poor judgment in selecting investment options in the case of In Re LinkedIn ERISA Litigation. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila rejected the company's motion to dismiss all allegations in November 2021, but he allowed to proceed to trial the complaint that the 401(k) plan retained an actively managed target-date series from Fidelity Investments instead of a passively managed target date series.
Although plan executives removed that actively managed investment in 2019, the judge wrote that "plaintiffs have adequately pled breach of prudence based on excessive management fees" for the actively managed target-date series. Fidelity isn't a defendant.
The settlement was the product of mediation, the Nov. 4 document said.
The LinkedIn Corporation 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan and Trust, Sunnyvale, Calif., had $1.28 billion in assets as of July 1, 2019, according to its Form 5500.
