In an article published May 26, 2022, in Today’s General Counsel, Partner Ann O’Brien and Associate Lindsey Collins write about two cases the U.S. Justice Department lost in April 2022. Titled “Not Guilty: Juries Acquit in First Criminal Antitrust No-Poaching and Wage-Fixing Trials,” the article notes that the government’s “defeats come after a years-long effort by the Antitrust Division to treat labor-market antitrust cases as per se criminal conduct, akin to wage fixing – a first in the 132-year history of the Sherman Act. In these two verdicts, the juries have spoken, rejecting the government’s new approach.” One jury rejected criminal antitrust charges against DaVita, a dialysis company, that involved an agreement with other companies not to hire each other’s workers. The other jury acquitted a former owner and director of a physical therapy staffing company of wage fixing.
Read the article.