A new law bars employers from retaliating against whistleblowers who report criminal antitrust violations.
The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 8 and signed into law by President Donald Trump on Dec. 23. The U.S. Senate had approved the measure in October 2019.
The U.S. Justice Department hailed the measure as an important tool for enforcing antitrust laws.
“We thank the president, the Senate and the House of Representatives for their bipartisan commitment to criminal antitrust enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the agency’s Antitrust Division. “By incentivizing disclosures of anticompetitive conduct, the Act will strengthen the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program, a cornerstone of our mission to protect the American consumer.”
The new supplements several other recent initiatives designed to help the DOJ investigate and prosecute antitrust cases, including a 2019 policy that encourages companies to comply with antitrust laws. —Staff reports