Competition Corner

The California Lawyers Association’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law hosted its inaugural In-House Counsel Summit on May 15, 2025, at the Computer History Museum in Menlo Park, California. 

In an historic jury verdict on April 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division secured its first-ever jury conviction for criminal wage-fixing in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.  For several years, the DOJ Antitrust Division had suffered a string of setbacks—with judges and juries alike—in its effort to criminally prosecute wage-fixing and “no poach” agreements between competitors in the labor market.  But a federal jury in Las Vegas, Nevada, reversed that trend by convicting Eduardo Lopez for his involvement in a three-year conspiracy to fix the wages of home healthcare nurses in the Las Vegas area, among other crimes.

In a Truth Social post published on December 4, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of current transition team advisor on antitrust policy Gail Slater to act as the next leader of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division.

In early August, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered a consent decree with Legends Hospitality Parent Holdings, LLC (“Legends”) to resolve gun-jumping allegations that Legends improperly exerted operational control over ASM Global, Inc. (ASM) while its HSR filing for its acquisition of ASM remained pending. Although the DOJ allowed the transaction to close, Legends agreed to pay $3.5 million and be subject to seven years of DOJ oversight to resolve the allegations. This action by the DOJ provides a reminder to buyers and sellers of the need to continue operating independently after a deal is signed until closing even when the deal does not present significant antitrust concerns.

Less than three weeks after the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA) took effect on March 7, 2024, the European Commission announced on March 25, 2024 that it is opening investigations into Apple, Google, and Meta for suspected noncompliance with its new directives.

Chair Lina Khan of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently addressed the FTC’s first Technology Summit on Artificial Intelligence. In her opening remarks, she expressed excitement about the event, highlighting the diverse expertise of the panelists and commending the efforts of the Office of Technology.

On February 3, 2023, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had withdrawn three policy statements that established certain enforcement “safety zones” or safe harbors for the exchange of competitively sensitive information and benchmarking exercises.

On July 31, 2023, China’s antitrust law enforcement agency, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), summoned four hog-farming companies for a regulatory meeting, with concerns over a no-poach agreement among them.

Whether tacit collusion—where firms effectively behave as though they are colluding without any direct communication expressing agreement—should give rise to an antitrust violation has long been a contested issue in the United States, with legal opinions varying and evolving over time.

In recent remarks, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers revealed that the DOJ Antitrust Division has yet to find a corporate defendant whose compliance program fits the Division’s “gold standard.”