DOJ Undeterred by Antitrust Labor Losses, More Cases in Pipeline

The Justice Department is pressing ahead with criminal antitrust prosecutions despite a pair of defeats last week, but the losses will influence the department’s strategy and how defense attorneys respond.

When juries in Colorado and Texas failed to convict executives on antitrust charges last week, they delivered setbacks to the government’s boundary-testing theory that anti-competitive practices affecting workplace conditions amount to criminal misconduct.

“I don’t think that these two trial losses will cause DOJ to reconsider its policy or prevent DOJ from continuing to pursue these cases aggressively,” said Katie Hellings, a partner at Hogan Lovells and former assistant chief ...