Antitrust laws don’t just regulate big corporations—they play a critical role in protecting workers from antitrust violations.
The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) enforce these laws to ensure fair competition in labor markets. Understanding your rights is essential to recognizing illegal employer practices and taking action.
These laws safeguard competition for labor, just as they protect competition for goods and services. They ensure that workers have the freedom to pursue the best opportunities for themselves and their families.
Revised Antitrust Guidelines for Business Activities Affecting Workers
The DOJ and FTC have issued updated “Antitrust Guidelines for Business Activities Affecting Workers” to combat exploitative business practices that harm workers. The revised guidelines outline how authorities assess violations of laws such as the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and Federal Trade Commission Act.
Key Areas of Focus Include:
Wage-Fixing Agreements: Employers colluding to set wages at artificially low levels.
No-Poach Agreements: Agreements between companies not to recruit, solicit, or hire workers, or to fix wages or terms of employment, may violate the antitrust laws and may expose companies and executives to criminal liability.
Franchise No-Poach Agreements: Agreements in the franchise context not to poach, hire, or solicit employees of the franchisor or franchisees may violate the antitrust laws.
Non-Compete Clauses: Restrictions preventing employees from leaving for better opportunities. Non-compete clauses can play a significant role in antitrust considerations, because they restrict workers’ ability to pursue better employment opportunities or start a competing business; they also decrease competition for workers.
Non-Disclosure Agreements (“NDAs”): Overbroad NDAs that unfairly limit job mobility, accepting other employment, or starting a business. NDAs can be anticompetitive if they:
- Cover an excessively wide range of information, such as any information “usable in” or “related to” an industry, thereby restricting a worker’s ability to use their skills and knowledge in future employment and, moreover, limiting their job mobility and competition in the labor market.
- Are worded in a way that suggests workers could face lawsuits or adverse employment consequences for reporting potential violations of law to state or federal authorities, or for cooperating with government investigations. This can prevent workers from reporting illegal activities, thereby undermining regulatory enforcement and competition.
Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (“TRAPs”): Requiring workers to repay excessive training costs, which can be anticompetitive if they function to prevent workers from moving to other jobs or starting their own business.
Non-Solicitation Agreements: Restrictions preventing former employees from soliciting former clients or customers can be anticompetitive, if they are so broad that they function to prevent a worker from seeking or accepting another job or starting a business.
Exit Fees and Liquidated Damages: Provisions requiring workers to pay a financial penalty for leaving their employer can be anticompetitive, such as if they prevent workers from working for another firm or starting a business.
Sharing Competitively Sensitive Information: Employers exchanging wage and employment terms with competitors to suppress wages.
Why Protecting Workers from Antitrust Violations Matters
When employers collude to restrict competition in the labor market, workers suffer. These illegal practices lead to:
- Lower wages
- Fewer job opportunities
- Reduced bargaining power
- Worsened working conditions
Take Action and Protect Yourself From Antitrust Violations – Know Your Rights
The antitrust laws prohibit harmful, anticompetitive practices to promote fair competition and better job opportunities.
If you believe your employer has been engaging in unlawful wage-fixing, no-poach agreements or other prohibited conduct, send us a message or contact Michael Yarnoff, Esq., (215) 792-6676, Ext. 804, [email protected], [email protected], for a free, no-obligation evaluation of potential legal claims.
About Kehoe Law Firm, P.C.
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is a nationally recognized, plaintiff-side class action firm dedicated to protecting investors and consumers from fraud and corporate misconduct. Our attorneys have served as Lead or Co-Lead Counsel in cases recovering over $10 billion on behalf of institutional and individual investors and consumers.
Through class action litigation, we hold corporations accountable for securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, unfair or inadequate mergers and acquisitions, and antitrust violations. We also represent whistleblowers and prosecute data breach, consumer protection, and employment law violations, as well as cases involving retirement plan mismanagement and deceptive business practices. With a results-driven approach, we pursue impactful litigation to achieve meaningful results and recoveries for those we represent.
Our class action legal services are provided on a contingency-fee basis, meaning clients are not responsible for any fees or litigation expenses.
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