As we previously reported, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to issue a final rule (the “Rule”) that would prevent most employers from enforcing noncompete agreements against workers, with only limited exceptions for...more
5/20/2024
/ Competition ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to issue a final rule that would prevent most employers from enforcing noncompete agreements against workers, with only limited exceptions for existing noncompetes with senior...more
4/25/2024
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
Private equity is squarely in the cross hairs of regulators; the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the launch of a...more
3/8/2024
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Healthcare ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Section 5 ,
Section 7 ,
Sherman Act ,
The Clayton Act
Summary -
Following a string of unsuccessful prosecutions in the labor space, the DOJ Antitrust Division moved this week to dismiss its last indicted criminal no-poach case, which had been pending against Surgical Care...more
11/21/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employees ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
No-Poaching ,
Sherman Act ,
Wage-Fixing
Summary -
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have taken steps to update the Merger Guidelines and overhaul the premerger notification process, each with a sharpened focus on the effect a...more
Summary -
Companies across all sectors of the economy—car manufacturers, apparel brands, banks, utilities, insurers, and asset managers—are increasingly working within their respective industries’ sustainability...more
Summary -
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with the concurrence of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Proposed Rule) aiming to revamp the premerger notification...more
6/30/2023
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Comment Period ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Merger Agreements ,
Merger Controls ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform
Two labor organizations, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania (SEIU) and the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), have lodged a public complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleging that the University of Pittsburgh Medical...more
In this episode, we discuss what employers, in-house counsel, HR departments, and business owners need to know about effective confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements, and the future of non-compete agreements.
Mitch...more
Summary -
The DOJ upended health care antitrust enforcement guidance last Friday by withdrawing previous guidance from 1993, 1996, and 2011 it characterized as “overly permissive on certain subjects,” stating that it no...more
Summary -
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) kicked off the new year with two actions aimed at banning non-compete agreements between employers and workers. On January 5, the FTC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking...more
Following the Federal Trade Commission’s announcement late last year that the Agency would use Section 5 of the FTC Act to police aggressively conduct it deems unfair (see our Legal Alert), the Agency kicked off the New Year...more
Summary -
The FTC last week signaled an expansion of its enforcement ability under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Section 5 prohibits “unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce.” ...more
11/16/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
New Guidance ,
Section 5 ,
Sherman Act ,
The Clayton Act ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On October 27, 2022, VDA OC, LLC, (VDA) a Nevada health care staffing company, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition for the services of school nurses. According to the plea,...more
Summary -
Earlier this year, the head of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, Jonathan Kanter, signaled that the agency would be ramping up its investigation of companies with interlocking directorates...more
Summary -
Increased antitrust enforcement is a hot topic in the nation’s capital this summer, with the House Judiciary Committee approving a package of legislation that would reshape the antitrust laws last week and an...more
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s ruling that Qualcomm violated the Sherman Antitrust Act through its licensing and sales practices related to cellular microchips, resulting in a defeat to the Federal Trade...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) formally released the new Vertical Merger Guidelines on June 30, 2020, to provide insight to companies as to how the agencies will evaluate the...more
The Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly released a statement announcing their focus on anticompetitive conduct in U.S. labor markets...more
The Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced they would be providing expedited guidance to companies embarking on procompetitive...more
In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it intends to hold accountable anyone who commits antitrust violations—by fixing prices, rigging bids, or allocating customers—in connection...more
3/13/2020
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bid Rigging ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Emergency Response ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Preventive Health Care ,
Price-Fixing ,
Public Health
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced yesterday that Canon Inc. and Toshiba Corporation agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine each to settle charges that the two companies violated the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act by failing to...more
6/12/2019
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Canon ,
Clearance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure to Comply ,
Failure to Report ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Statutory Violations ,
Toshiba ,
Waiting Periods
Employers should assess whether their employment practices— including benchmarking, recruitment, and the sharing of information about employee compensation—comply with antitrust law requirements in the face of increased...more
10/31/2018
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Benchmarking ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Information Sharing ,
No-Poaching ,
Recruitment Policies ,
Wage-Fixing
Businesses and individuals should be aware that their antitrust compliance policies may not adequately cover all reportable transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) states that an...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) won another decisive victory in its effort to fight health care provider consolidation when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court’s decision denying the...more