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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Arrington v. Burger King Worldwide, Inc., No. 20-13561 (11th Cir. Aug. 31, 2022) – In October 2018, a former line cook of a Burger King franchise restaurant in Illinois, filed a class action complaint in the District Court...more
The Department of Justice has claimed its first victory in attacking “no-poach” agreements after a Nevada staffing company pled guilty and was sentenced to pay $134,000. The case arose out of a concerted effort by the...more
Since at least the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, healthcare employers nationwide have endured serious talent acquisition and retention challenges, forcing employers to consider different strategies to maintain...more
Since the last edition of the QCC, there has been a series of dramatic developments in the criminal antitrust enforcement space in the U.S. from the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (Division)....more
On April 14, 2022, a Texas jury returned five not-guilty verdicts on six charges considered in the first federal criminal wage-fixing prosecution. A day later, on April 15, 2022, a Colorado federal jury entirely acquitted...more
Over the past year, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has increasingly been hot on the heels of suspected anti-competitive labor violations. To date, the DOJ has brought a few actions against employers across industries...more
It has been nearly a year since the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division (DOJ) made good on its promise to criminally charge companies that agree not to solicit each other's employees in so-called "no-poach"...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) finally fulfilled its long time promise to criminally prosecute “no-poach” agreements. A no-poach agreement is an agreement between two or more employers not to hire employees away from each...more
Employment-related antitrust regulation is intensifying amid a volatile labor market so Mark Henriques asked David Hamilton and Sarah Motley Stone, two of Womble Bond Dickinson's brightest minds on this subject, to share some...more
For many federal government contractors, their skilled and experienced workforce may be their most valuable asset. A recent “ice breaker” settlement of a class action lawsuit, however, demonstrates the wrong way to protect...more
In October 2016, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an eleven-page joint guidance document entitled “Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource...more
On Friday, July 9, 2021, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order that could have far-reaching implications for businesses across a broad spectrum of industries. The Executive Order takes a government-wide approach...more
The Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) continues to investigate hiring practices in a number of industries for potential antitrust violations as part of its effort to scrutinize, and in some instances,...more
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division is pushing criminal enforcement against companies for illegal wage-fixing among competitors in the hiring market. ...more
Agreements between companies not to solicit or to hire each other’s employees (“no poach agreements”) have been in antitrust enforcers’ crosshairs for several years now. In 2016, the DOJ and the FTC released their joint...more