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DOJ and FTC Issue Joint Statement on Protecting Competition in COVID-19 Labor Market
Practical Law Legal Update w-024-9967 (Approx. 3 pages)
DOJ and FTC Issue Joint Statement on Protecting Competition in COVID-19 Labor Market
by Practical Law Antitrust
| Published on 14 Apr 2020 • USA (National/Federal) |
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a joint statement on measures the agencies will take to protect first responders and essential workers from anticompetitive conduct relating to wage-fixing, no-poach and non-compete agreements, and unlawful exchange of sensitive salary information.
On April 13, 2020, the DOJ and FTC issued a joint statement outlining the measures the agencies will take to protect first responders and essential workers from anticompetitive conduct in the labor market during the COVID-19 event, including:
- Unlawful wage-fixing, such as unlawful agreements to lower wages or reduce salaries.
- No-poach and non-compete agreements.
- Unlawful exchange of competitively sensitive information, such as salary and compensation data.
The agencies stated that they are on alert for anticompetitive conduct in hiring, recruiting, retention, and worker placement and will:
- Criminally prosecute naked wage-fixing and no-poach agreements.
- Bring civil enforcement actions against:
- companies and individuals who act in furtherance of collusive behavior, including by issuing invitations to collude; and
- employers acting unilaterally to harm competition in the labor market.
The agencies urged individuals to report harm to labor market competition to the DOJ's Citizen Complaint Center at [email protected] and the FTC's complaint center at [email protected].
For more on anticompetitive conduct in labor markets, see Practice Notes, Non-Solicitation and No-Poach Agreements, Antitrust Considerations in Employment Agreement Non-Compete Clauses, and Information Exchanges Among Competitors (Non-Merger).