Press Release 08/2024
April 4, 2024

The Decision
The Competition Authority (AdC) has fined a large technology consulting company with a penalty of €278.000 for anti-competitive practices in the labor market during the years 2016 to 2021.
This is the third company sanctioned in this sector for practices restricting competition in labor markets.
The company collaborated with the AdC, waiving the right to contest the AdC's factual charges and voluntarily paying the fine imposed within the scope of the settlement procedure.
In the same process, the AdC had already sanctioned two multinational companies in the technology consulting sector for anti-competitive practices in the labor market during the years 2014 to 2022.
These companies were fined €1,323,000 and €2,481,000, respectively. The fines were reduced as a result of the companies’ collaboration. In addition to participating in the settlement procedure, one of the companies also joined the leniency programme.

The Settlement Procedure
The process, under the designation PRC 2022/3, involved four targets and continues in relation to a company that did not join the settlement procedure.
The companies collaborated with the AdC, waiving the right to contest the AdC's factual charges and providing relevant evidence of the infringement's existence, and voluntarily paying the fine for participating in the settlement procedure.
Resorting to the settlement procedure allows for significant procedural gains while still sanctioning companies that commit competition infringements.

Anti-competitive practices in the labor market
This is the second case for restrictive competition practices in labor markets resulting in sanctions since the AdC intervened in the labor market for the first time in 2020.
Non-hiring agreements, or "no-poach" agreements, involve agreements through which companies commit not to hire or make spontaneous job offers to workers of companies with whom they have entered into such agreements.
The "no-poach" practice is prohibited by Competition Law, as it limits companies' autonomy in defining strategic commercial conditions, in this case, human resources hiring policies, and can occur in any sector of activity.
The practice is also likely to affect the mentioned workers by reducing their bargaining power and salary levels and depriving them of labor mobility.

In 2021, the AdC published a Report and a Good Practices Guide to prevent these no-poach agreements for workers.