A Texas jury acquitted the former owner and clinical director of a home-health staffing company of conspiring with rivals to reduce contractors’ pay, dealing a blow to government efforts to punish practices that it says harm workers.
The verdict is the first in a federal criminal case involving labor-market collusion, after the Justice Department signaled six years ago that it could charge defendants in such matters instead of bringing civil cases against them. President Biden last year ordered the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, which share antitrust enforcement authority, to better protect workers from wage fixing and other actions that can restrict labor-market competition.
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