Spring 2022, May, Volume 1

Competition law and policy are classically concerned with consumer welfare. In other words, lower prices, regardless of the consequences for other actors in the supply chain, have classically been the primary concern of the rules and their application.

However, there is no reason, in principle, why antitrust rules cannot apply to other aspects of the market process, including labor supply. As such, illegal agreements in labor markets that would prevent competitors from being able to hire each others’ (ex-) employees are not automatically immune from the application of the rules.