On Tuesday, March 11, 2025, the Senate confirmed Gail Slater to be assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice by a vote of 78-19. Slater has held positions at the Federal Trade...more
On January 16, 2025, in the waning hours of the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly released their “Antitrust Guidelines for Business Activities Affecting...more
1/23/2025
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Franchise Agreements ,
Franchises ,
Joint Policy Statements ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
On December 12, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed its first Robinson-Patman Act case in more than 20 years, just as the White House is set to change parties and the balance of power on the FTC will swing...more
12/30/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Grocery Stores ,
Manufacturers ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Price Discrimination ,
Robinson-Patman Act ,
Section 5 ,
Supply Chain ,
Trump Administration ,
Wholesale ,
Wine & Alcohol
On August 5, 2024, District Judge Amit P. Mehta (U.S. District Court, District of Columbia) ruled in United States v. Google LLC that Google violated §2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing the internet search engine market....more
9/12/2024
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Destruction of Evidence ,
Document Destruction ,
Duty to Preserve ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Failure To Preserve ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Intentional Spoliation ,
Monopolization ,
Obstruction of Justice ,
Popular ,
Sanctions ,
Search Engines ,
Sherman Act ,
Spoliation ,
Text Messages
On April 23, the FTC issued its much-anticipated Final Rule banning worker non-competes. The Final Rule targets the Biden administration’s goal of reducing barriers to employee mobility....more
5/3/2024
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Biden Administration ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Executives ,
Employment Contract ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
OIRA ,
Regulatory History ,
Section 5
After proposing in 2023 to ban nearly all employee noncompete agreements nationwide, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has remained largely silent on whether it will pare back some of the proposal’s more controversial...more
As we previously wrote, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) April 2023 loss in United States v. Patel, its fourth in a criminal no-poach case, cast a pall over the agency’s enforcement efforts. The following month, the DOJ...more
We recently wrote about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC or the Commission) controversial new Proposed Rule that would largely ban non-compete agreements between employers and “workers.” The Proposed Rule would ban not...more
On Jan. 5, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-1 to propose a new rule under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act that would largely ban non-compete agreements between employers and employees. If passed, the...more
1/9/2023
/ Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
NPRM ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair Competition
Following its repudiation of its prior enforcement regime in July 2021, the FTC on Nov. 10 issued a Statement Regarding the Scope of “Unfair Methods of Competition” Under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act...more
In October 2022, the Federal Trade Commission issued a Public Comment opposing a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) for the merger of State University of New York Upstate Medical University (SUNY Upstate) and Crouse...more
In June 2021, the Supreme Court reaffirmed in NCAA v. Alston that antitrust claims under Section 1 of the Sherman Act “presumptively” call for rule-of-reason analysis and that only the rare case merits “quick look” or per se...more
7/25/2022
/ Alston v NCAA ,
Class Action ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Franchise Agreements ,
Franchises ,
Legitimate Business Interest ,
Legitimate Business Purpose ,
McDonalds ,
No-Poaching ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Sherman Act
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy. According to the fact sheet that accompanied the order, competition in the U.S. economy is in dire straits....more
In 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued Joint Guidance for Human Resource Professionals warning that no-poach agreements restricting employee hiring may violate the antitrust...more
In 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly issued “Antitrust Guidance to Human Resource Professionals,” addressing employee no-poach agreements – agreements between two or more...more