The guide provides practical guidance on HR management practices and information exchanges that may constitute violations of competition law.
The National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) recently published the document “Preventing Collusion in Labor Markets: Good Practices”, aimed at companies, executives, and Human Resources teams.
The publication is part of the initiatives that the FNE’s Anti-Cartel Division has been developing since 2025 to promote competition in labor markets.
The underlying message is clear: practices that have historically been managed as internal HR matters may constitute violations of Decree Law No. 211 and, in the most serious cases, expose companies and their executives to competition law sanctions.
The guide’s main novelty is not that the FNE considers wage-fixing or no-poach agreements to be problematic—an issue the authority has been addressing since 2025—but rather that it provides practical guidance on HR management situations and information exchanges between competitors that have traditionally fallen outside the scope of compliance programs.
What Practices Concern the FNE?
The guide identifies two main categories of agreements between competing employers:
- Wage-fixing agreements: coordination among competitors regarding salaries, bonuses, benefits, or other employment terms and conditions.
- No-poach agreements: commitments not to recruit or attempt to hire employees from competing companies.
In addition, the FNE warns against the exchange of commercially sensitive information between competitors concerning compensation, benefits, hiring policies, compensation structures, and recruitment plans.
According to the guide, these exchanges may facilitate or encourage anticompetitive conduct and, depending on their characteristics and effects, create risks under Decree Law No. 211.
Beyond Explicit Agreements: Trade Associations, Benchmarking, and Salary Surveys
One of the guide’s most significant aspects is its focus on situations that do not necessarily involve express agreements between competitors but may nonetheless raise competition law concerns.
In this context, participation in salary surveys, compensation benchmarking exercises, trade associations, and industry forums for information exchange deserves particular attention.
Importantly, the guide specifically encourages companies to examine how these interactions are conducted and what safeguards are necessary to prevent them from creating competition law risks.
Practical Implications for Companies
The guide also emphasizes that decisions regarding hiring, compensation, and employee benefits must be made independently of competitors.
In particular, the FNE recommends that companies refrain from coordinating salaries or employment conditions, avoid no-poach agreements, and not exchange sensitive information regarding compensation or hiring policies.
In light of the FNE’s recommendations, companies should carefully review:
- Hiring restriction clauses contained in commercial agreements, including service agreements, business collaboration agreements, and joint ventures.
- Their participation in salary surveys, benchmarking exercises, and trade associations, assessing how information relating to compensation, benefits, and hiring policies is collected, shared, and used.
- The training of individuals responsible for HR-related decision-making, including executives, compensation managers, recruiters, and anyone participating in industry forums where labor market issues may be discussed.
- Their compliance programs, ensuring they expressly address competition law risks relating to labor markets.
You can review the FNE’s full document here.
For more information on these topics, please contact our Public Law, Regulated Markets, and Labor Law team:
Jorge Arredondo | Partner | jarredondo@az.cl
Antonio Rubilar | Partner | arubilar@az.cl
Jocelyn Aros | Director, Labor Practice Group | jaros@az.cl
Dafne Guerra | Director, Life Sciences & Competition | dguerra@az.cl
Felipe Neira | Senior Associate | fneira@az.cl
Elisa Elgueta | Associate | eelgueta@az.cl
