Competing for talent

What you need to know

On 9 September 2025, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published the ”Competing for Talent Guide” (Guide) on how competition law applies to the recruiting and retaining of workers. The Guide includes a case study based on the CMA’s recent infringement decision in which it fined five sports broadcasting and production businesses £4 million for sharing sensitive information about pay.

The Guide is published in the context of increasing enforcement about anti-competitive conduct in labour markets globally including in the technology, sport and media sectors and provides an important reminder of the need for businesses to understand the risks. See our briefing here.

The messaging is clear: businesses may compete to hire and retain workers even if they do not compete for customers; that makes them competitors for labour to which competition law clearly applies.

Businesses must therefore be alive to the types of behaviour that can be deemed anti-competitive, and ensure competition law compliance programmes reflect this.

Types of anti-competitive conduct

Competition law prohibits businesses from entering into agreements or engaging in conduct that restricts fair competition. In the Guide, the CMA identifies three main types of anti-competitive behaviour in the context of labour markets:

• No-poaching agreements: These involve arrangements where a business agrees not to hire or poach the employees of another business. Such agreements limit workers’ mobility and ability to negotiate salaries, and reduce competitive pressure on employers to offer better terms. The CMA clarifies the distinction between these agreements and non-solicitation clauses often seen in commercial agreements, noting that the latter may not necessarily be anti-competitive they are proportionate and limited in duration, subject matter, and geographical scope.
• Wage-fixing agreements: These are arrangements between employers to set or cap employee pay and benefits, such as agreeing on uniform wage rates, bonuses, or working conditions. This undermines fair compensation and distorts market dynamics.
• Information sharing and benchmarking: Employers must not exchange confidential, non-public information about employee terms and conditions. This includes details on salaries, bonuses, and other employment benefits.

The CMA considers all of these arrangements can relate to freelancers, contracted workers as well as permanent salaried employees and are all forms of cartels, which are prohibited under competition law.

The Guide also confirms it will not seek to enforce competition law in the context of (genuine) collective bargaining, which applies irrespective of whether the workers are employed or self-employed.

Recent enforcement

In March 2025, the CMA issued its first infringement decision relating to labour market collusion in which five businesses were found to have exchanged sensitive information about fees to coordinate how much to pay freelancers working in the sports broadcasting industry. BT, IMG, ITV and BBC were fined over £4 million for their behaviour, confirming that labour restrictions will be treated as cartel conduct and enforced strictly by the CMA.

The case study published at the same time as the Guide, provides lessons to be learnt from the investigation and explains how the companies broke the law, giving real examples of email and WhatsApp exchanges found and relied on as evidence of wrongdoing. In short, companies must:

• not share or exchange competitively sensitive information on rates of pay;
• promote a culture of compliance and help those involved in recruitment and retention understand the rules; and
• co-operate fully with a CMA investigation to benefit from exemption or reduction in a fine.

HR needs to be a frontline compliance function

The Guide, coupled with recent enforcement action, signals that labour markets remain a key competition law priority for enforcement.

Human resources and recruitment professionals must be trained and employment practices should be audited and reviewed to ensure they comply with competition law. Understanding how the law applies will also enable organisations to support legitimate, industry-wide conversations about market trends and economic factors, including those affecting salaries or employment terms, and ensure they remain within legal boundaries and do not inadvertently cross into anti-competitive behaviour.

Above all, organisations must understand which types of information and practices are permissible to share or agree upon with counterparts at other organisations (even in informal settings) as breaches can result in significant penalties.

Further reading

Crossing the Line: How a Minority Shareholding Enabled Anticompetitive Conduct in Labour Markets

Competition authority warns employers to avoid anti-competitive HR practices

Competition authorities crackdown on employment markets: a new era for cartels

Federal Trade Commission proposes rule to ban noncompete agreements in employment contracts