---
title: "Screen an agreement for cartel or competitor-collaboration risk"
url: "https://ailawframework.com/practice/competition-and-consumer-law/screen-an-agreement-for-cartel-or-competitor-collaboration-risk/united-states"
type: "task_jurisdiction_version"
site: "AI Law Framework"
id: "A29-T1-R2-US"
practice_area: "Competition & Consumer Law (ACCC / ACL)"
tier: "red"
lawyer_review: "required"
jurisdictions: ["US"]
last_reviewed: "2026-10-22"
---

# Screen an agreement for cartel or competitor-collaboration risk

> Table the parties, whether they compete for customers or for workers, and the clause that restrains price, output, hiring or solicitation. Write no legal conclusion.

Canonical page: https://ailawframework.com/practice/competition-and-consumer-law/screen-an-agreement-for-cartel-or-competitor-collaboration-risk/united-states  
Last reviewed: 2026-10-22

Site index for agents: https://ailawframework.com/llms.txt

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Practice area | [Competition & Consumer Law (ACCC / ACL)](https://ailawframework.com/practice/competition-and-consumer-law.md) |
| Human involvement | Red: Lawyer writes; AI may check, clarify or collect data |
| How AI is used | Table the parties, whether they compete for customers or for workers, and the clause that restrains price, output, hiring or solicitation. Write no legal conclusion. |
| What the lawyer must review | You write the conclusion. Sherman Act § 1 makes every contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade among the states or with foreign nations illegal, and makes the offence a felony. The January 2025 FTC and DOJ guidelines on workers say that businesses which compete for workers may commit an antitrust crime if they agree not to recruit, solicit or hire workers or to fix wages, and that the agencies look at substance rather than form. Those guidelines are not a judgment in the client’s case. Read § 1 and the agreement before you say an arrangement is unlawful. |
| Written for | United States |
| Applies to | [Screen an agreement for cartel or competitor-collaboration risk](https://ailawframework.com/practice/competition-and-consumer-law/screen-an-agreement-for-cartel-or-competitor-collaboration-risk.md) |

## Checking plan

- What the AI does: Table the parties, whether they compete for customers or for workers, and the clause that restrains price, output, hiring or solicitation. Write no legal conclusion.
- Basis: Checked against the linked sources on 22 October 2026. Confirm the current instrument before reliance.

## Notes

- Do not call an agreement per se criminal because a guidelines example says another agreement was.
- Labour-market competitors need not sell the same product. The guidelines say so. You still read the facts.

## Sources

- [15 U.S.C. § 1, Sherman Act section 1](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1) (checked 2026-10-22)
- [FTC and DOJ, Antitrust Guidelines for Business Activities Affecting Workers (January 2025)](https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/p251201antitrustguidelinesbusinessactivitiesaffectingworkers2025.pdf) (checked 2026-10-22)
- [ABA Formal Opinion 512, Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (29 July 2024)](https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/ethics-opinions/aba-formal-opinion-512.pdf) (checked 2026-10-22)

## Forms and precedents for this task

| Form or precedent | Kind | AI level | Summary |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [US antitrust compliance policy](https://ailawframework.com/precedents/competition-and-consumer-law/us-antitrust-compliance-policy.md) | Policy | Yellow | Company policy built around Sherman Act section 1 as opened, including the felony penalty.… |

Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one.

*Practice guidance for planning and review. Confirm current primary sources and the requirements of the actual matter. This is general information, not legal advice.*