The US District Court for the District of Connecticut acquits six aerospace executives in a no-poach antitrust criminal prosecution (Mahesh Patel / Robert Harvey / Harpreet Wasan / Steven Houghtaling / Tom Edwards / Gary Prus)

US Department of Justice Faces Additional Setback in Criminal Antitrust Labour-Market Prosecutions* A recent acquittal in a criminal antitrust case marks another setback to the US Department of Justice's effort to use criminal prosecutions to address alleged anticompetitive conduct in labour markets. A criminal jury trial of six aerospace executives charged with violating federal antitrust law came to an end on April 28, 2023, when the judge overseeing the case granted the defendants' motion for acquittal. The indictment, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut by the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice ("DOJ"), alleged that the defendants had agreed "to restrict the hiring and recruiting of engineers and other skilled-labor employees"