Earlier this week, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division announced that, for the first time ever, it will offer rewards to individuals who report antitrust crimes and related offenses.
Partnering with the United States Postal Service, the Antitrust Division now invites individuals with original and specific information about antitrust crimes to voluntarily report that information and, in appropriate cases, earn substantial monetary rewards of up to 30% of any criminal fines recovered. While alleged violations must be nominally related to “the Postal Service, its revenues, or property,” whistleblowers need not articulate a material or significant harm to the USPS to be eligible for the program.
As set forth in the memorandum of understanding between the USPS and the DOJ:
- Eligible violations are limited to criminal violations of the Sherman Act (e.g., price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation, and certain monopolization cases), as well as violations committed to conceal such crimes or impede their investigation.
- If the Antitrust Division determines that a whistleblower reward is appropriate, the presumption will be that the total reward will be at least 15% of, but no greater than 30% of the recovered criminal fine (i.e., $1,000,000 for individuals and $100,000,000 for corporations), and multiple whistleblowers may split rewards.
- To qualify as original, the information reported must be derived from independent knowledge, unknown to the Antitrust Division and USPS, and not derived exclusively from an allegation made in a judicial or administrative proceeding.
- A tip will not be considered voluntary if a person has a “preexisting obligation” to provide the information to any law enforcement agency, “including as part of an employer’s application to the Antitrust Division’s Corporate Leniency Policy.”
- A person is not eligible for a reward if they “coerced another party to participate in the illegal activity or were clearly the leader or originator of that activity.”
While a first for the Antitrust Division, the new program follows on the heels of whistleblower incentives implemented recently by DOJ’s Criminal Division, offering financial rewards for individuals with limited or no criminal culpability. It also introduces a potentially potent supplement to the Division’s longstanding leniency program and similar programs promising non-prosecution agreements for cooperating individuals involved in criminal offenses. As discussed in a prior McGuireWoods alert, these programs are intended to further DOJ’s goal of using both “carrots” and “sticks” to incentivize companies to invest in compliance and prevent misconduct.
The program further demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to—and willingness to invest in—vigorous enforcement of traditional antitrust crimes, notwithstanding early suspicions that enforcement might ebb in 2025. Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater, head of DOJ’s Antitrust Division, offered a stark warning:
The new Whistleblower Rewards Program will create a new pipeline of leads from individuals with firsthand knowledge of criminal antitrust and related offenses that will help us break down those walls of secrecy and hold violators accountable . . . If you’re fixing prices or rigging bids, don’t assume your scheme is safe—we will find and prosecute you, and someone you know may get a reward for helping us do it.
Those rewards have the potential to be very significant—and tremendously enticing. Now is the time for companies to examine their antitrust compliance programs, including mechanisms for employees to raise concerns internally. A company that learns early of concerns about anticompetitive conduct has far more options than one caught flat-footed.
Attorneys at McGuireWoods have extensive experience counseling and representing companies facing a host of different antitrust and competition issues. Companies with questions about the impact of the new whistleblower program are encouraged to reach out to the authors of this alert.