No-Poach Agreements Are Per Se Illegal, DOJ Says in Trucker Case (1)

Competing employers’ no-poach agreements are inherently illegal, the Justice Department said in a statement of interest filed in a workers’ antitrust lawsuit against CRST International Inc. and other trucking companies.

The lawsuit, brought by a group of current and former truckers in 2017 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, alleged that transportation and logistics companies conspired to suppress wages by agreeing not to hire each others’ workers.

These no-hire agreements are per se illegal, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division wrote in its July 15 statement in response to the defendants’ motions for summary judgment.

“Defendants’ argument ...