I have not written a blog post in some time. Been busy, or perhaps a bit lazy, but the Fourth Circuit opinion in United States v. Brewbaker,   __ F. 4th __(4th Cir. 12/1/2023), 2023-2 Trade Cases ¶82,716; 2023 Westlaw 8286490 caught my attention. The decision represents a surprising departure from black letter law that collusion between…

Two items recently in the cartel news caught my eye because they have something in common: the chicken parts criminal price fixing prosecution failures and Donald C. Klawiter’s article calling for A Really New Leniency Program: A Positive, Cooperative, and Enthusiastic Partnership for Effective Antitrust Enforcement, Antitrust, Vol. 36, No. 3, Summer 2022. What they have…

The U.S. Supreme Court this term will hear arguments in a case questioning whether respondents in a Federal Trade Commission proceeding can challenge the constitutionality of the FTC’s procedures and structure in federal district court while an administrative action is pending or whether they must wait for appellate court review of a Commission cease-and-desist order….

The Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association’s 14th International Cartel Workshop took place over June 27-29, 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal. By all accounts the conference was a success and well attended. The only thing missing was, um, any international cartel cases to talk about. There are likely numerous reasons that international cartel cases have…

It has become common for defendants indicted on criminal antitrust charges to argue that the use of the per se rule in their trial is unconstitutional. The United States, however, has beaten back each attack with ample precedent from the relevant court of appeals fortified with long standing Supreme Court precedent (i.e., Trenton Potteries and…

I have no expertise in predicting whether the Supreme Court will grant certiorari on any given petition. But I am hopeful that the high court will do so on the issue of whether the application of the per se rule in a criminal antitrust case is unconstitutional. I have seen a couple of items recently…

On November 29, 2021 in U.S. v. Neeraj Jindal and John Rodgers, Civil Action No. 4:20-CR-00358A (N.D. Texas), District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant rejected defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment on various grounds, including challenges to the per se rule. Among other arguments, defendants argued that “wage-fixing” was not covered by the Sherman Act…

In an October 16, 2016 FTC/DOJ press release: FTC and DOJ Release Guidance for Human Resource Professionals on How Antitrust Law Applies to Employee Hiring and Compensation the Antitrust Division first announced: “Going forward, the Justice Department intends to criminally investigate naked no-poaching or wage-fixing agreements that are unrelated or unnecessary to a larger legitimate collaboration between…