Advice for Manager, HR Professionals on Antitrust Enforcement of No Poach/Wage Fixing Agreements

In a new article, MSCI General Counsel Mark McCareins discusses the acceleration of antitrust enforcement of no poach/wage fixing agreements. His column offers advice for managers and human resource professionals and outlines what they should be aware of when it comes to the enhanced criminal penalties for these types of agreements.

Historically, when it came to antitrust enforcement, human resource (now commonly referred to as the ‘Talent Acquisition or ’Human Capital’ ) professionals were usually last on the list to receive any sort of antitrust compliance training. All that should have changed in 2016 when the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (”DOJ”) released its first round of guidance for human resource professionals. For maybe the first time in the long history of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, the human resource arena became a target for antitrust lawsuits.

While that 2016 DOJ shot across the bow did receive some notoriety, a relatively passive, civil enforcement track record kept the application of antitrust to employment issues on the back burner. Enforcement efforts , either civil or criminal, of labor market restraints are clearly now on the front burner of the FTC, DOJ, state attorney generals as well as private plaintiff counsel.

Click here to read McCareins’ full article at International In-house Counsel Journal.