Thursday, January 26th, 2023 9:00 – 10:00 am

In the last several years, the U.S. Antitrust Agencies—the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—have been intensifying their focus on how certain employment-related practices potentially impact competition and run afoul of the antitrust laws.

On January 5, the FTC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking – providing for an across-the-board prohibition against all non-compete clauses.  In addition, non-solicitation, confidentiality and other provisions that are broad enough to have the practical effect of prohibiting workers from providing services to a competitor are also prohibited by the proposed rule.  According to the FTC, these provisions  constitute an unfair method of competition under the FTC Act.   Our recent Alerts describe in greater detail the proposed FTC rule (FTC Proposes Nationwide, Retroactive Ban on Virtually All Non-Compete Clauses, January 6, 2023), and recent FTC activity challenging non-competition provisions (Proposed Consent Orders Invalidating Noncompete Agreements Reflect FTC’s Broad View of FTC Act Section 5, January 6, 2023).

The Agencies have also been actively pursuing criminal and civil enforcement actions against companies and individuals that enter into “no-poach” agreements – that is, agreements not to hire each other’s employees. Indeed, the DOJ recently was successful in its first criminal prosecution of a no-poaching agreement.  Non-solicitation agreements between two companies face similar risks and could face similar legal challenges.

The antitrust laws relating to labor markets are now a critical area of focus for in-house counsel and HR professionals alike.

This course will cover the applicable antitrust laws and best practices for compliance, including practical approaches for responding to the proposed FTC prohibition against non-competition clauses, conduct to avoid when it comes to poaching, price-fixing and more.  We will also address the consequences for violating the antitrust laws, and the benefits of having a robust antitrust compliance policy and training program at your organization.

Credits: 1.0 CA CLE; 1.2 NJ CLE; 1.0 NY CLE; 1.0 PA CLE; 1.0 HRCI; 1.0 SHRM
(Other states available for CLE credits upon request)

To pay by check for this program, please fill out this Registration Form

Nonprofits: When registering, please use the promo code NPDiscount23 when adding this course to your cart to receive your 10% discount.