Criminal antitrust intent: recent developments frustrate the U.S. DOJ Antitrust Division's ability to secure convictions at trial

An important development in the articulation of criminal antitrust intent has, in many ways, evolved to frustrate the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division’s ability to secure convictions at trial. The aggressive campaign by the Antitrust Division to reinvigorate criminal enforcement of the antitrust laws has been framed in part by whether it can achieve a measure of success in a series of indictments charging wage suppression in domestic labor markets. Will new guardrails emerge to delimit core per se antitrust offenses from those categories of conduct that require more dynamic scrutiny based on the complexities of particular markets and business relationships?

Read more about the evolution of criminal antitrust intent in our briefing: Behind the DOJ’s recent antitrust trial losses: an evolving concept of intent.