A new sense of unease: the rise of no-poach and wage-fixing concerns under EU Competition Law

A new hot topic has emerged in antitrust discussions around the world and it is here to stay: Wage-fixing and "no-poach" agreements between employers are perceived as a threat not only for affected employees, but also for innovation in general. Competition authorities worldwide have initiated numerous investigations and are using their investigative measures, including dawn raids, to fight this new threat to competition that in the authors' view may be more of a non-properly specified "sense of unease" rather than a genuine antitrust issue.

White & Case partners Tilman Kuhn and Strati Sakellariou-Witt, along with associate Cristina Caroppo, shed light on (i) the roots of the discussion, (ii) the ongoing enforcement activities and (iii) the most relevant – largely still open – competition law questions, such as the distinction between "by object" and "by effect" restriction and the ambiguities around the theory of harm of such competition law concerns. They also provide an overview of measures that companies should take to address potential complaints raised by stakeholders or competition authorities.

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This article is reproduced with permission from CPI Antitrust Chronicle May 2022. For further information please www.competitionpolicyinternational.com

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