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
In October 2016, the Obama Administration announced that it would criminally prosecute no-poach and wage-fixing agreements among competitors for talent. Starting in December 2020, through the Trump and Biden Administrations,...more
Antitrust experts from across the globe convened in Washington, D.C. on April 2–4, 2025 to discuss new enforcement policies and share updates on current issues in antitrust. We provide the key highlights from numerous panels...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), under the new leadership of Republican Chair Andrew Ferguson, has announced the formation of a Joint Labor Task Force to “prioritize rooting out and prosecuting deceptive, unfair, and...more
On February 26, 2025, Andrew N. Ferguson, the newly appointed Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), issued a memorandum outlining the agency’s populist agenda and directing the formation of a “Joint Labor Task Force”...more
While the original guidelines focused primarily on per se illegal wage-fixing and no-poach agreements, the 2025 Guidelines illustrate a significant expansion in enforcement, broadening scrutiny to compensation benchmarking,...more
In the closing days of the Biden administration, antitrust law enforcers issued cautions to employers about conduct that could draw criminal charges against them. One is the use of restrictive non-disclosure agreements that...more
Less than a week before the administration change from former President Joe Biden to President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new guidance highlighting business...more
President-elect Donald Trump recently announced that Republican Commissioner Andrew Ferguson will chair the Federal Trade Commission during Mr. Trump’s second administration. Commissioner Ferguson is also a known critic of...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
On September 12, 2024, the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) Region 22 in Newark, New Jersey, issued an unfair labor practice complaint against a New Jersey building services company, alleging...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
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
The third quarter of 2023 has been pretty exciting as far as employment lawyers are concerned. Substantial regulations have been proposed and the pressure from federal agencies continues to rise. We will talk about some of...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
Welcome to our Q2 Trade Secret and Restrictive Covenant Update. As you can tell from the update, Q2 was a busy quarter in this space from both a regulatory, legislative, civil litigation and criminal litigation perspective....more
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has suffered setbacks in its precedent-setting criminal prosecution of no-poach agreements in labor markets. The latest and perhaps most surprising defeat occurred when the...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division — for the third time in the span of a year — recently failed to convince a jury that alleged agreements to fix or stabilize labor markets should be punished criminally. It...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
Updated as of January 31, 2023- The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposed a rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that would prohibit companies from imposing post-employment noncompete agreements. If enacted, the Proposed Rule...more
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed new rule that would effectively prohibit employers from requiring employees to agree to noncompete clauses. The public is invited to submit comments...more
It has been a tumultuous year for the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and its recent no-poach criminal prosecution strategy. No-poach agreements, which are arrangements between companies that place restrictions on the hiring...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