Italy Opens Landmark Antitrust Investigation Into Labour Market Practices

Key Takeaways

• First Labour Market Cartel Probe in Italy: The Italian Competition Authority has opened its first investigation into a suspected restrictive agreement targeting the labour market rather than product pricing or output.
• Alleged No-Poach Agreement: The probe focuses on whether a group of packaging machinery manufacturers and validation service providers coordinated to avoid hiring each other’s validation specialists.
• Whistleblower-Driven Enforcement: The investigation was triggered by a complaint submitted through the Authority’s whistleblowing platform, followed by on-site inspections supported by the Guardia di Finanza.
• High-Skill Workers in the Spotlight: The case centers on highly specialized validation professionals whose mobility is critical to compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices across regulated industries.
• Signal for HR and Compliance Teams: The investigation underscores growing antitrust scrutiny of hiring practices, wage-setting, and labour mobility agreements in Europe.

Deep Dive

Italy’s competition watchdog has opened a first-of-its-kind antitrust investigation into alleged collusion in the labour market, turning its attention to a cluster of companies operating at the heart of the country’s automated packaging industry.

The Italian Competition Authority said it is investigating whether a group of packaging machinery manufacturers and validation service providers coordinated to restrict the hiring of highly specialized validation professionals, effectively agreeing not to recruit workers who had previously been employed by one another.

If confirmed, the conduct would represent a classic “no-poach” agreement, but one applied not to executives or general staff, but to a small, highly skilled group of validation specialists whose work is essential to the production of packaging machinery used across the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, coffee, tea and tobacco sectors.

The case was triggered by a whistleblower complaint submitted in March 2025 through the Authority’s whistleblowing platform and later expanded with additional evidence. According to the complaint, experienced validation professionals were routinely rejected from recruitment processes solely because of their prior employer, even when their skills were in demand and their experience directly relevant. The effect, the Authority said, was to trap workers in their existing roles, stripping them of meaningful career mobility and bargaining power.

On the back of the complaint, Authority officials carried out unannounced inspections at the companies’ premises, supported by the Special Antitrust Unit of the Italian Financial Police, the Guardia di Finanza.

In opening the proceedings, the Authority made clear that it views the alleged conduct as particularly serious. Drawing on European Commission guidance, it noted that agreements not to hire each other’s staff are typically considered restrictive by their very nature, meaning regulators do not need to show downstream effects on product prices or output to establish a violation. The harm, instead, is felt directly in the labour market.

From an economic standpoint, the Authority warned that no-poach arrangements can suppress wages, weaken incentives for training, reduce the flow of knowledge between firms, and lead to inefficient allocation of skilled labour, effects that can ultimately ripple outward, reducing productivity and innovation in downstream markets.

The investigation is firmly rooted in Italy’s so-called “packaging valley”, a dense industrial ecosystem centered in Emilia-Romagna where global packaging machinery manufacturers, automation specialists and validation service providers compete for a limited pool of highly qualified professionals. The Authority’s preliminary view is that the relevant labour market may be local or regional in nature, reflecting the specialized skills involved and the geographic concentration of employers.

Validation specialists occupy a critical gatekeeping role in this ecosystem. Their work involves certifying that complex industrial machinery complies with Good Manufacturing Practices, including factory and site acceptance testing, before equipment can be deployed in regulated production environments. According to the Authority, this makes prior sector experience, and mobility between firms, especially valuable.

The decision also points to potential parent-company liability, noting that any conduct by G.D could be attributed to Coesia, which wholly owns the company, under established EU competition law principles.

Formal proceedings have now been opened against all named companies. They have 60 days from notification to request a hearing, and the Authority has set 30 June 2027 as the deadline to conclude the investigation. The case will be handled by the Authority’s Cartels, Leniency and Whistleblowing Directorate and published in its official bulletin.

While the outcome remains uncertain, the investigation sends a clear signal: competition enforcement is no longer confined to product markets. In Italy, as elsewhere in Europe, the labour market itself is now firmly within the antitrust spotlight.

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