Antitrust

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On Monday, April 14, 2025, a federal jury convicted Eduardo “Eddie” Lopez of conspiring to fix the wages for home healthcare nurses in Las Vegas and for fraudulently failing to disclose the criminal antitrust investigation during the sale of his home healthcare staffing company.  According to the complaint and trial evidence, Lopez, who oversaw recruitment, hiring, retention and assignments of nurses for three home health agencies, conspired with unnamed conspirators in a series of meetings and communications to artificially cap the wages of Las Vegas-area nurses between March 2016 and May 2019.  He will be sentenced on July 14 for one count of participating in a wage-fixing conspiracy and five counts of wire fraud. Continue Reading DOJ Notches First Trial Win in Wage-Fixing Case

On April 10, 2025, the Senate confirmed Mark Meador to serve as the third Republican on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a 50-46 party line vote. Commissioner Meador takes his seat on a Commission now comprised of three Republicans and no Democrats since President Trump fired Democratic Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya in March. The…

In the first major initiative of the Antitrust Division within the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice, the DOJ announced on March 28, 2025 the creation of a task force to “advocate for the elimination of anticompetitive state and federal laws and regulations that undermine free market competition and harm consumers, workers, and businesses.” Citing President Trump’s Executive Order 14219, which mandated such reviews, the DOJ’s announcement called out for special scrutiny the “regulatory capture” of agencies by “special interests and big businesses” in five economic sectors:  housing, transportation, food and agriculture, healthcare, and energy.Continue Reading U.S. Department of Justice Launches “Anticompetitive Regulations” Task Force

Days before President Trump’s inauguration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) replaced their Antitrust Guidance for Human Resources Professionals (“2016 Guidance”), which had been in place since 2016.  The Antitrust Guidelines for Business Activities Affecting Workers covers similar ground as the prior guidance, but expands its reach to a few areas emphasized by the Biden Administration.  For example, where the 2016 Guidance primarily covered 1) naked agreements between employers not to poach workers or fix wages and 2) information-sharing arrangements between competing employers, the replacement guidance expands its coverage to other areas, including restrictions in the franchise and independent contractor contexts, non-competition agreements, ancillary agreements such as non-disclosure agreements, non-solicitation agreements, liquidated damages provisions, and conduct such as false earnings claims.Continue Reading DOJ and FTC Release Replacement Human Resources Guidelines to an Uncertain Future

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) secured a record consent penalty of $5.6 million against two merging parties on January 7, 2025 for improper pre-merger coordination, marking the agency’s first gun-jumping action in over a quarter century.  Verdun Oil Company and XCL Resources Holdings had agreed to acquire EP Energy LLC in a transaction requiring prior notification to the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (“HSR Act”).  In the substantive antitrust investigation that followed the parties’ HSR Act notifications, the FTC secured a commitment for Verdun and XCL to divest assets as a condition of FTC approval for the transaction.  The FTC also discovered that the parties had violated the HSR Act.Continue Reading FTC Secures Record Gun-Jumping Penalty in a Case with Several Lessons for Merging Parties

On November 12, 2024, the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) published updated guidance for its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs in Antitrust Investigations. First published in 2019, the DOJ has updated its guidance several times since.  The guidance is intended to educate the public and to guide prosecutors in making charging decisions and sentencing recommendations for criminal antitrust violations. Continue Reading Takeaways from the Department of Justice’s November 2024 Corporate Compliance Program Guidelines

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On November 12, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published its Final Rule and Statement of Basis and Purpose amending the Premerger Notification and Report Form filed for transactions reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (“HSR Act”). 

Unless the Final Rule is delayed or rescinded by the FTC, the new…

On October 10, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released final revisions of the rules that govern filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the “Final Rules”). The Final Rules will take effect 90 days after they are ultimately published in the Federal Register.

The FTC scaled back or…

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On April 17, 2024, the SEC’s Division of Examinations issued its latest risk alert regarding Rule 206(4)-1 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, known as the Marketing Rule. Following the examinations staff’s June 2023 and September 2022 risk alerts regarding areas of emphasis in examinations focused on compliance with the Marketing Rule, the latest risk alert highlighted initial observations from examinations of investment advisers’ compliance with the Marketing Rule and related rules under the Advisers Act. The risk alert focused on compliance with the Marketing Rule’s general prohibitions, Rule 206(4)-7 (the Compliance Rule), Rule 204-2 (the Books and Records Rule), and Form ADV disclosure requirements.Continue Reading SEC Staff’s Latest Marketing Rule Risk Alert Highlights Initial Observations from Examinations

On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to adopt a Final Rule banning virtually all non-compete agreements between employers and employees.  The Final Rule will not go into effect until 120 days after its publication in the Federal Register (the “Effective Date”), and its enforcement could be further delayed or barred by court challenge or Congressional intervention. Continue Reading The FTC Adopts Final Rule Banning Employee Non-Compete Agreements