Where Have We Been, and Where Are We Going? The Criminal Prosecution of Buyer Cartels

The announcement in October 2016 that the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice intended “to criminally investigate naked no-poaching or wage-fixing agreements,” or buyer cartels for labor, was widely viewed as a momentous shift in enforcement policy. This was not only because of the focus on labor as a commodity was previously not a significant area of interest for antitrust enforcement — much less criminal enforcement — but also because it represented a buyer-side agreem