The Biggest Antitrust Developments So Far in 2023

Lisa Phelan spoke to Law360 about some of the biggest developments so far this year in cases alleging anti-competitive conduct.

The Department of Justice’s enforcement push against activity that hurts competition for workers saw a pair of significant setbacks in early 2023. In April, a Connecticut federal judge tossed charges midtrial against six aerospace and staffing company bosses accused of participating in a no-poach conspiracy, stopping the case from going to the jury ahead of closing arguments after finding that no reasonable juror could convict based on the evidence presented by prosecutors under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29.

According to Lisa, it’s incredibly rare for a case to be tossed under Rule 29, and that the allegations in the aerospace case were complicated by the relationships between the companies involved. She added that while other types of white collar cases involve more tangible offenses, like stealing money or making false statements, criminal antitrust cases are hard to try even with the best of facts.

“An antitrust crime is a meeting of the minds, which is a hard thing to prove,” Lisa said. “There’s no physical, tangible proof other than maybe some cryptic statements in an email or a text message.”

Read the full article.