![]() So in these cases, a promise not to hire certain people can effectively be a promise not to innovate, or not to enter a new market." And then there are those where the key to success is finding staff who have the right skills. There are markets where you can only compete if you have expensive machinery, or costly IP. " And that's not the only way that an agreement not to poach each other's staff can create a cartel."… some buyer cartels do have a very direct effect on individuals, as well as on competition, when companies collude to fix the wages they pay or when they use so-called ‘no-poach agreements' as an indirect way to keep wages down, restricting talent from moving where it serves the economy best.".And for deterrence to work, we need to show that when they do, we'll be waiting for them". "… the more we focus on … familiar cartels, the more companies will look for other ways to collude.Vestager's speech clarified that the European Commission will also look at atypical cartels, and in particular at no-poach agreements. Just in the last two weeks, the European Commission has dawn raided several companies in the wood pulp industry and a company in the animal health sector. Speaking at the Italian Antitrust Association's Annual Conference, Commissioner Vestager noted that it had been practically impossible to conduct coordinated dawn raids in many countries at once as a result of the pandemic, but that the picture has now changed (see our recent alert: an autumn dawn raid revival has started in the EU). Companies should be aware of this new risk area and review compliance. Notably, Commissioner Vestager linked the upcoming focus on such agreements in labor markets to another hot topic in EU competition law: innovation competition.Ĭommissioner Vestager's remarks indicate that the European Commission is likely to launch investigations into suspected anti-competitive behavior in the human resources area very soon. She highlighted that the European Commission is not just looking to investigate traditional cartels, like price-fixing agreements, but also other types of anti-competitive conduct – such as wage fixing or no-poach agreements. In a speech on 22 October 2021, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager revealed that the European Commission was planning a series of dawn raids for the months to come. ![]()
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