Winston & Strawn Sponsors GCR Live: Cartels

On March 11, 2025, Winston Antitrust Partner Sofia Arguello joined a panel at the GCR Live: Cartels event in Washington, DC to discuss the “Impact of a New Administration on Cartel Conduct.” Sofia was joined by antitrust experts Brent Snyder, Richard Powers, and Jimmy Attridge, and moderator Megan Lewis. They discussed how the new U.S. administration’s priorities and changes in FTC and DOJ leadership could influence anti-cartel enforcement strategies, the use of collusion theories to deter ESG efforts, and international cooperation against cartels.

Key Takeaways

• In anticipation of the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee, Gail Slater, for Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, the panel provided their predictions on how Slater would run the Division. Despite the number of shakeups in other government agencies, the panelists all agreed that strong criminal antitrust enforcement would likely continue under the new administration, particularly in consumer facing markets such as technology, food agriculture, and healthcare. Price fixing cases will also likely continue to be a priority for the Division, as they have been a constant across administrations.
• The panelists also answered questions surrounding the continued enforcement of no poach agreements in the labor market. While many of the panelists believe that labor market enforcement will continue on the civil side, it is less clear how enforcement will look on the criminal side. The previous Trump administration and the Biden administration found labor to be an important area of enforcement, and the panelist expect this to be a continued priority for the new Trump administration. However, it remains to be seen if the Division will continue to pursue criminal prosecutions of no poach cases or instead focus on civil enforcement in this area and reserve criminal enforcement for wage-fixing agreements that resemble traditional price-fixing.
• The panelists also expect the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) cases to remain a priority. The PCSF is a coordinated effort from the Antitrust Division at the DOJ, U.S. Attorney’s Offices throughout the country, the FBI, and the Inspectors General for multiple federal agencies that addresses anti-competitive activity and fraud related to government procurement, grants, and program funding at the federal, state, and local level. Since its inception in 2019, during Trump’s first administration, the PCSF has opened more than 145 criminal investigations and obtained over 60 guilty pleas and trial convictions. Particularly given current resource constraints, PCSF cases remain particularly attractive given that enforcement duties are shared across different agencies.
• Looking toward the future of criminal antitrust enforcement more broadly, the panelists predicted that in addition to the areas already discussed, there will be an uptick in ESG-related cartel investigations, continued focus on prosecuting anticompetitive conduct that affects supply chains and algorithmic pricing cases, increased state AG enforcement efforts, and a renewed focus on prosecuting international cartels. Of course, all of this will depend on whether the Division has the resources to carry out its ongoing enforcement actions and take on new ones. The panelists discussed how robust enforcement requires a full staff and how recent cuts, as well as a loss of experienced attorneys, will impact the Division’s ability to investigate and bring new actions.

Winston & Strawn is a proud sponsor of the GCR Live: Cartels annual event, which unites practitioners from across the country, including private practitioners, corporate counsel, and government enforcers, to discuss and examine the most recent significant developments in competition law.