EBay Inc. said it will fight a Department of Justice lawsuit that alleges that the Internet retailer and financial software provider Intuit Inc. had signed an illegal agreement restricting the companies' ability to actively recruit employees from one another.

According to the DOJ complaint, the agreement began no later than 2006 and lasted at least until 2009. The DOJ said the agreement for over a year also barred at least eBay from hiring any Intuit employees at all. EBay and Intuit directly compete for employees, including...