Criminal Antitrust in 2022: Two Cases Likely To Frame the New Agenda

With the appointment of the brand new head of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Division of Justice now in place, corporations and practitioners alike are eagerly awaiting a mission assertion from the company with respect to U.S. prison antitrust enforcement. By any measure, the three-decade-long wave of prison antitrust enforcement waned throughout the prior administration. See, e.g., Todd S. Fishman and David C. Esseks, Felony Antitrust Enforcement (Chapter 1) at §1.02[4], White Collar Crime: Enterprise and Regulatory Offenses, Legislation Journal Press (2019 rev. ed.). As well as, President Biden’s July 2021 govt order on selling competitors in concentrated U.S. markets made solely passing reference to cartel exercise. So the query stays whether or not the company’s current deal with single-enterprise market dominance in a lot of home markets, together with the data know-how, agriculture and well being care sectors, will displace the previous emphasis on multi-firm cartel conduct.

Because the solutions start to emerge within the new yr, two lively prison prosecutions by the Antitrust Division are prone to body any renewed precedence on prison enforcement. One case includes the primary trial in a set of prison indictments within the District of Colorado charging fourteen executives with taking part in a scheme amongst a number of the nation’s largest poultry producers to repair the worth of broiler hen merchandise. There, the trial court docket declared a mistrial after the federal jury remained deadlocked and didn’t return a verdict as to all ten defendants. The second case includes the labor markets and the Antitrust Division’s first prison wage-fixing case. If something, these instances augur for the aggressive use of prison enforcement to broaden the classes of enterprise conduct topic to per se condemnation underneath the antitrust legal guidelines.

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