Competition Law Issues in the Human Resources Field

Abstract

Competitor agreement not to solicit or hire each other's employees as well as agreements among competitors to poach a rival entity's key employees could be deemed as a violation of competition law principles (and in some jurisdictions, public policy doctrines).

European and US jurisprudence shows that an agreement or merely the exchange of information concerning human resources data, such as wage/salary, among competitors could run afoul of competition law rules.

As an area of competition law, these more settled forms of anti-competitive risk-bearing practices deserve meticulous and sustained attention from practitioners in the field.

Keywords: human resources, antitrust, competition, collusive poaching agreements, wage-fixing agreements

JEL Classification: K21, L40, L44