Fierce Competition Podcast | Antitrust Collusion in Labor Markets: Enforcement Trends on Both Sides of the Atlantic
#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®
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Podcast | Episode 100: Marguerite Willis, Nexsen Pruet Attorney
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published detailed guidance on how UK competition law applies to certain human resources (HR) practices, focusing on what UK businesses “need to know when recruiting workers...more
A quiet but fast-accelerating change is reshaping a corner of competition law once thought to lie beyond its reach. What began as a campaign against monopolies of goods and services has moved, inexorably, into the realm...more
On 9 September 2025, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published new guidance on how competition law applies to recruiting workers, setting pay and other working conditions. The guidance builds on a recent string...more
In recent years, competition authorities around the world have increasingly focused on labour markets. Following recent enforcement activity in the US, the EU and France (as well as in the UK), the CMA has further signalled...more
On 9 September 2025, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published new guidance on how competition law applies to recruitment and HR processes, “Competing for Talent” (the Guidance). The Guidance targets HR...more
On April 14, 2025, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada convicted the operator of a home healthcare staffing agency of a criminal violation of the federal antitrust laws. ...more
In April 2025, a Nevada federal jury convicted Eduardo Lopez, a home healthcare staffing executive, for fixing the wages of home health nurses. The conviction marks the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s (DOJ) first...more
In the final days of the Biden administration, the FTC and DOJ jointly issued antitrust guidelines on business practices that impact workers that replace the 2016 Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals, which...more
Amendments to the Canadian Competition Act (Act), taking effect on June 23, 2023, will make it a criminal offence for unaffiliated employers to agree, conspire or arrange to: •“fix, maintain, decrease or control salaries,...more
Competition Bureau Publishes Related Enforcement Guidelines Canada's new criminal prohibition on wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements will come into force on June 23, 2023. These new provisions under subsection 45(1.1) of...more
A Ruling and Order issued on April 28, 2023 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in United States v. Patel, et al. ran the government’s losing streak to four failed trials seeking to criminally prosecute...more
In another blow to the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) efforts to criminalize “no-poach” and “wage-fixing” agreements, a federal judge terminated the DOJ’s latest “no-poach” case mid-trial before jury deliberations....more
Labor Market Meets Competition Law - In a labor market where companies are competing to attract and retain talent, the rising shortage of highly-skilled employees, high mobility, and high salary demands in certain market...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 August 17, 2022, Canada's Federal Court of Appeal agreed with a growing consensus of lower courts that section 45 of the Competition Act does not apply to "buy-side" conspiracies, such as agreements between employers with...more
The U.S. Department of Justice appears to be close to reaching a plea deal that would result in the nation’s first-ever successful criminal prosecution of a workplace-related antitrust matter – and it should send a clear...more
Significant amendments to Canada’s Competition Act (Act) were enacted on June 23, 2022, with the passing of the federal government’s 2022 budget implementation legislation. The amendments foreshadow more aggressive...more
For this very special 100th episode of Taking the Pulse, we're joined by Nexsen Pruet attorney Marguerite Willis. Marguerite is a highly experienced litigator, and was featured on the cover of the latest Super Lawyers...more
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) announced that it would criminally prosecute no-poach and wage-fixing agreements for the first time. Indeed, the DOJ has backed this up by bringing a number of...more
On January 28, 2022, a federal grand jury in Maine returned an indictment charging four managers of home health care agencies with participating in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and restrict the job mobility of Personal...more
In July of 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14036, which affirmed the executive branch’s policy to enforce antitrust laws. Two aspects of the Order relate directly to employment law...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
Antitrust authorities are increasingly focused on anticompetitive agreements in the labour markets. In a recent speech held in Rome on 22 October 2021 ("A New Era of Cartel Enforcement"), EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe...more
Absprachen im Personalbereich rücken zunehmend in den Fokus der Kartellbehörden. EU Wettbewerbskommissarin Margrethe Vestager hat jüngst am 22. Oktober 2021 in einer Rede in Rom ("A New Era of Cartel Enforcement")...more
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has targeted collusion in labor markets for criminal prosecution. This was not unexpected. Indeed, the Antitrust Division gave plenty of warning to companies that criminal...more