Burger King Loss Tees Up Test of Franchise No-Poach Liability

Burger King Corp.‘s loss at the Eleventh Circuit over its no-poach agreements involving franchisees provides a road map for how the issue will be litigated and signals such pacts potentially run afoul of antitrust law.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit declined to rule on whether Burger King’s agreements with franchisees that ban franchisees from hiring each others’ workers is presumed to be a violation of antitrust laws. But it remanded the former Burger King workers’ case, saying a district court judge erred in dismissing the lawsuit.

The opinion sheds more light on the potential illegality ...