AGG Talks: Antitrust and White-Collar Crime Roundup - Inside the World of No-Poach Investigations and Indictments
#WorkforceWednesday: ACA Preventive Coverage Mandate Blocked, Another No-Poach Loss for DOJ, and Employers Prepare for the End of the COVID-19 Emergencies - Employment Law This Week®
Trade Secret / Restrictive Covenant 2022 Year In Review (Fairly Competing, Episode 19)
Class Action | Eleventh Circuit Reinstates No Hire Antitrust Claims Against Burger King
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Podcast | Episode 100: Marguerite Willis, Nexsen Pruet Attorney
The Latest on Antitrust Compliance
III-42-The New Overtime Rule and Antitrust Issues With Your Non-Competes
Employment Law This Week®: Employee Mobility
II-31- The Changing 9 to 5 From 1980 to Today
Employment Law This Week®: Criminal Prosecution of Anti-Poaching Agreements, EEOC Publishes 2017 Data, Organizational Changes at NLRB, NYC’s “Cooperative Dialogue” Requirements
II-26 – Superbowl Concerns, Tax Reform/MeToo, Restrictive Covenant Crimes, and Expanded Religious Discrimination Theories
On 11 June 2025, the French Competition Authority (‘FCA’) fined three companies active in the engineering, technology consulting, and IT services sectors, Alten, Bertrandt, and Expleo, a total of €29.5 million for...more
On 2 June 2025, the European Commission fined Delivery Hero and Glovo a total of EUR 329 million for participation in a cartel in the online food delivery sector. Notably, this marks not only the first time the Commission has...more
European Commission ("EC") issues its first fining decision for a no-poach agreement, and also sanctions for the first time the exchange of sensitive information between a company and its competing, non-controlling minority...more
On 15 May 2025, Advocate General Emiliou issued his opinion in the Portuguese football no-poach case. The AG opinion is of particular interest given the European Commission's increased scrutiny of labour market related...more
The Belgian Competition Authority recently rendered a decision imposing significant fines totaling EUR 47 million on competitors guilty of a variety of anti-competitive agreements, including ‘no-hire’ clauses....more
As a new policy statement from the European Commission (EC) treats wage-fixing and no-poach agreements as inherently anticompetitive (restriction of competition “by object”) with few possible defences, companies should...more
Until now, the European Commission's (EC) antitrust focus on labour-related issues has been timid. This may soon change. The EC has recently published a policy brief on labour markets, explaining that in its view, wage-fixing...more
On March 18, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States (the “Supreme Court”) denied a petition for writ of certiorari brought by McDonald’s USA, LLC (“McDonald’s”). McDonald’s had asked the Supreme Court to review a...more
Whilst not traditionally a focus of the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), the UK’s labour markets now form one of the CMA’s strategic priorities, as outlined in its 2023 to 2024 Annual Plan....more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and now state attorneys general, have set their sights on staffing companies in their evolving efforts to examine labor markets through an antitrust lens....more
Nearly seven years after first announcing its intent to criminally prosecute employers and individuals for anticompetitive conduct in labor markets, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ or Division) voluntarily...more
On November 13, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) moved to drop its last remaining no-poach criminal prosecution case, U.S. v. Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, et al. This marks an informal end to the DOJ’s...more
As we discussed earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) in recent years has brought numerous criminal prosecutions against companies accused of engaging in so-called “naked” no-poach agreements, i.e.,...more
A coalition of 19 Democratic AGs, led by New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in support of former tax preparers for Jackson Hewitt, Inc., who allege...more
Maybe don’t get a drink with your competitor. These are not easy times to be in human resources. Attracting, recruiting, and retaining talented employees is as challenging as ever. As I have previously written, wages are...more
Corporates and deal teams should pay careful attention to drafting non-competes and other restrictive arrangements as UK, EU, and US regulators step up enforcement. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are placing...more
In Deslandes v. McDonald’s USA LLC, issued August 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned the dismissal of antitrust claims that challenged no-poach clauses in franchise agreements....more
A coalition of 21 AGs filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in support of former Saks retail store employees who allege that they were harmed by “no-poach” agreements between Saks and...more
In the latest setback in the Department Justice Antitrust Division’s (DOJ) attempts to prosecute “no-poach” agreements criminally, a federal judge acquitted from the bench all six defendant employees of aerospace engineering...more
In a noteworthy upset last week, U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s latest – and largest – anti-poach case brought to trial yet, opting to decline sending the...more
The DOJ Loses Jury Trial on No-Poach Conspiracy Charges. In the wake of the Federal Trade Commission’s attack on non-competes, the Department of Justice (DOJ) lost its most recent fight in its related battle against...more
New York Attorney General Letitia James recently reached a $400,000 settlement with Affordable Senior Care of New York LLC (Affordable) for engaging in anticompetitive conduct in the homecare industry. New York-based...more
With a couple of notable exceptions, cartel fines were lower in most jurisdictions in 2022 than in the prior year—and well below historical norms. Fines in the United States—long the leader in cartel enforcement—were lower...more
Last year, the Competition Act was amended to make it a criminal offense for two or more unrelated employers to enter into wage-fixing or no-poaching agreements. As we discussed last summer, these new provisions come into...more
On January 18, 2023, the Competition Bureau published draft enforcement guidelines on wage-fixing and no poaching agreements, inviting interested parties to provide their comments no later than March 3, 2023. The draft...more