The message from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is clear:
HR and recruitment practices are now firmly under the competition law spotlight.
With the release of its “Competing for Talent” guidance on 9 September 2025, the CMA warns businesses: if you collude on hiring, salaries, or pay data—you could be breaking the law.
What’s Now Considered Anti-Competitive in Hiring?
The CMA identifies three key no-go zones for employers, HR professionals, and recruiters—even across unrelated industries:
- No-poach agreements
- Wage-fixing agreements
- Sharing of sensitive pay data
These behaviours are considered forms of labour market cartels, and are treated just as seriously as price-fixing in consumer markets.
Examples from the CMA
- A sports broadcasting cartel was fined over £4 million in March 2025.
- Small industry groups that share future pay plans are now high-risk.
- Even informal chats over coffee can trigger legal exposure.
What’s Still Allowed?
The CMA makes room for:
- Public benchmarking (ONS, job boards, etc.)
- Anonymised salary surveys conducted by neutral third parties
- Collective bargaining with workers or unions—including self-employed
But crossing into coordinated pay-setting remains unlawful.
What Should Employers & HR Do?
- ❗ Avoid “informal understandings” about hiring or pay
- 🔐 Protect internal salary strategy from external exposure
- 🎓 Train HR and recruiters in competition law basics
- 🧾 Establish clear internal reporting channels
- 🤝 Use third-party data carefully, and only with proper safeguards
Reflection: The HR Function Just Became a Compliance Risk Zone
Traditionally, HR has operated at arm’s length from legal and compliance strategy. That distance no longer exists.
This guidance signals a deeper trend: labour markets are now fully embedded in the competitive economy. Employers who once viewed pay benchmarking or handshake hiring deals as best practice must now reframe them as legal liabilities.
It’s a cultural shift. HR leaders are being asked to think more like compliance officers. Informality, in this context, is no longer harmless. It’s potentially criminal.
At Quadlux, we see this as a call to modernise not just how companies hire, but how they govern that process.
What This Means for Global Employers & EORs
If you’re recruiting across borders—or managing distributed teams via an Employer of Record—this is your reminder that HR compliance isn’t local anymore. Especially in talent-scarce sectors like tech, media, and engineering, informal alignment among employers is under scrutiny.
What may feel like “industry cooperation” can, in the eyes of regulators, become collusion.
Final Word
Recruitment is competition. Salaries are prices. Information is power.
The era of treating HR as outside the legal risk zone is over.
Stay compliant. Compete fairly. And if in doubt ask.
