In late September, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In the MOU, the two agencies expressed their “good-faith intentions” to work together to “address the need for information sharing, coordinated investigations and enforcement activity, training, education, research, and outreach between the [a]gencies.”

The MOU notes several areas of mutual interest important for coordination between the agencies, such as “[a]pproaches to identifying and remedying anticompetitive conduct or mergers, or unfair or deceptive acts or practices,” as well as approaches to identify and remedy violations of laws enforced by the DOL. 

When discussing coordinated investigations and enforcement, the MOU notes that “[s]taff may also exchange information about general patterns of conduct that may be anticompetitive or otherwise harm consumers, workers, or others. As discussed below, each [a]gency may make referrals of potential violations of the other [a]gency’s laws, where appropriate.”

This MOU comes on the heels of the FTC’s proposed modification to the Hart-Scott-Rodino filing form, which would require filing entities to provide the largest employee classifications and geographic overlap for those employees, and it emphasizes the FTC’s interest in competition in labor markets.

* * *

For additional information about the issues discussed above, or if you have any other antitrust concerns, please contact the Epstein Becker Green attorney who regularly handles your legal matters, or one of the authors of this Antitrust Byte:

E. John Steren
Member of the Firm
esteren@ebglaw.com
Patricia Wagner
General Counsel / Chief Privacy Officer
pwagner@ebglaw.com
Jeremy Morris
Member of the Firm
jmorris@ebglaw.com
 

More Like This

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.