Tara Reinhart

Skadden Discusses First DOJ Criminal Challenges to Wage-Fixing and No-Poach Agreements

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More than four years after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly released the Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals in 2016 (Antitrust Guidance), the DOJ has brought its first criminal indictments for wage-fixing and no-poach agreements.

The 2016 Antitrust Guidance, released in the last few months of the Obama Administration, warned human resource professionals that agreements between competitors to set wages or to refrain from soliciting each other’s employees — so-called no-poach agreements — could result in criminal prosecution under U.S. antitrust laws. The guidance represented a considerable expansion of the agencies’ enforcement … Read more

Skadden Discusses Supreme Court Review of FTC Monetary Relief Authority

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On January 13, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case, AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, that could substantially curtail the primary authority the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) relies on to seek monetary relief from defendants in federal court. For decades, the FTC has used Section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (FTC Act) to seek billions in restitution and disgorgement in a wide range of actions, including cases concerning telemarketing and online frauds, deceptive business practices, data security and privacy breaches, and conspiracies to monopolize in pharmaceutical markets.

Section 13(b) authorizes the FTC to seek … Read more