AmLaw 100 firm Morgan Lewis has released a report detailing global antitrust actions in 2023, and forecasting trends for 2024.

For 2023, the firm saw record fines by authorities in Japan, United States, Australia, and Canada. Meanwhile, No-Poach and Wage-Fixing Agreements continued to draw enforcement spotlight by authorities around the world.

In 2024, "we expect to see an uptake in cases involving labor market collusion in particular, given proposed changes in national laws on both sides of the Atlantic, which may make it more difficult for companies to restrict the freedom of employees to switch jobs, resulting in businesses seeking alternative, unlawful ways of achieving the same end," the predictions begin.

The firm also sees agencies taking on "the role of AI in leading to cartel or collusive outcomes," and (ironically enough) sees international antitrust agencies joining forces more frequently to investigate and prosecute global cartels and corporate collusion.

As Law.com details,"the report showed fines from antitrust authorities across a dozen global jurisdictions last year went up 7.7% to $1.4 billion from 2022. While the numbers are below the $4.3 billion in  2021, enforcers are sending a message that 'we’re back.'"

Mark Katz, a competition attorney and partner at Canadian firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, told Law.com that actual cases and wins by agencies have dropped in recent years, but it's a testament to previous enforcement. Those previous cases “created such a stir of publicity” that they've deterred new cases.

The DOJ's Docket

The DOJ has been busy with major antitrust cases over the last few years and 2024 stands to be no different. Its case against Google's ad business—which the DOJ says is anticompetitive—will go to trial in September of this year. An antitrust suit against Apple for its own anticompeitive behaviors in the App Store could come as soon as March, reports Bloomberg. And Amazon is embroiled in an antitrust case brought on the FTC, which alleges the retail titan "prevents sellers from hawking their merchandise at lower prices on other sites," notes the AP. But the Biden Administration isn't done. As Politico writes: "after three years of pushing hard against some of the world’s largest companies, the Biden administration is set to accelerate several of its biggest antitrust fights in 2024 with an intense lineup of lawsuits and investigations." Ryan Sandrock, an antitrust lawyer at Shook, Hardy and Bacon, and a former DOJ staff attorney, told the site that “we’re going to see more new actions in terms of investigations and litigation than any prior year during the administration.” In fact, he added that the current administration has ramped up antitrust activity higher than anything he's seen since 2003.

THE VERDICT:

If 2021 and 2022 were the era of unionization, 2023 and 2024 seem to be the time for antitrust action. Firms should review the compliance with existing labor standards, especially No-Poach and wage agreements, and stay up to date with AI regulations as they continue to appear.

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