The Long Winter Continues: DOJ Antitrust Defeated In Third Consecutive Labor-Side Criminal Trial

The Department of Justice (DOJ) lost its third successive criminal labor-side antitrust trial on March 22, with a jury handing the defendants a full acquittal in United States v. Manahe.¹ This latest defeat leaves DOJ's already-beleaguered labor-side criminal antitrust enforcement initiative in an even more parlous state. And while we don't doubt that DOJ will continue to bring similar cases, it's hard not to wonder whether DOJ brass is considering (or should consider) a significant course correction.

We have been tracking DOJ's crackdown on wage-fixing and no-poach/non-solicitation agreements, which began during the Obama administration, for several years now. As we noted in a December 18, 2020 client alert, years after the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission issued guidance warning that "naked" wage-fixing and no-poach agreements would be criminally investigated and prosecuted for the first time, DOJ secured its first indictment in the space