Welcome to Compliance Hot Spots, our weekly snapshot on white-collar, regulatory and compliance news and trends. Today, we recap a tough week for the Justice Department in its effort to target antitrust labor abuses. Plus, a new FCPA settlement comes with a compliance monitor, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco is casting a wide net for advice on corporate enforcement. Please reach out with tips and feedback. Contact me at [email protected] and @AGoudsward on Twitter.

U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C, on January 12, 2022. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

DOJ Suffers Setbacks in Antitrust Labor Focus

The U.S. Justice Department's effort to spotlight labor issues in its antitrust enforcement suffered a major defeat last week when a federal jury in Colorado acquitted both dialysis provider DaVita and the company's former CEO Kent Thiry following a criminal antitrust trial.

DaVita and Thiry were accused of entering a so-called no-poach agreement with a competitor, Surgical Care Affiliates, agreeing not to hire each other's senior-level employees. DOJ has increasingly been targeting such agreements in recent years, and the head of the department's antitrust division, Jonathan Kanter, has spoken about the need for enforcers to crack down on anti-competitive behavior involving workers.

But the jury's rejection of DOJ's case against DaVita and Thirty, and a similar setback last week in a wage-fixing case in Texas, show how difficult it can be for prosecutors to push the boundaries of antitrust enforcement. Cases involving no-poach agreements have rarely gone to trial in U.S. courts.