In today’s news and commentary, the FTC argues that some DEI hiring practices could constitute anticompetitive collusion, the Supreme Court may decide the scope of a promising exception to forced arbitration, and New Jersey pauses codification of its ABC test for independent contractor classification.
Bloomberg reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has joined the Trump administration’s anti-DEI campaign with a novel legal theory of DEI as anticompetitive collusion. On January 30, the FTC sent a warning letter to about 40 top law firms—reminiscent of letters the EEOC sent to law firms last March but with a very different legal theory. The FTC suggests that firms consulting with a company called Diversity Lab and holding monthly “knowledge-sharing calls” with each other may have committed anticompetitive collusion if such actions “ha[d] the effect of diminishing labor competition by excluding certain workers from markets.” While related to other labor-market antitrust theories like no-poach agreements and wage-fixing, this one is untested and probably an uphill battle. Still, some suggest that the theory is not meant to prevail in court at all but simply to scare firms into prophylactic surrender—also reminiscent of the EEOC’s letters last March.
Meanwhile, according to Law360, a petition for certiorari in a consequential arbitration clause case sits before the Supreme Court. In Flores v. New York Football Giants, Inc., the Second Circuit held that the NFL could...
Copyright 2026, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Chattanooga Times Free Press, Inc. Material fr...