The Antitrust Conduct Cases to Watch in 2022

Megan Gerking and David Shaw spoke to Law360 about the major antitrust conduct cases to watch in the coming year.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will be pursuing labor-side antitrust enforcement after years of promising that it was no longer satisfied with purely civil enforcement, declaring the first such indictment in late 2020. Some of the DOJ’s new criminal prosecutions will go to trial in 2022.

“DOJ’s authority to bring no-poach cases under its criminal authority I think will be tested in the next year,” Megan said.

The Federal Trade Commission has similarly expressed an interest in protecting workers, including through rulemakings. The efforts to expand labor-side enforcement is driven by President Biden’s summer executive order aimed at bolstering competition across the economy.

According to David, the executive order also called for initiatives by other government agencies, imposing mandates on and making requests of “a whole bunch of regulators and offices scattered throughout the executive branch.”

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